


Minecraft Byleth

by pinkydistortion



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Byleth Twins, Chatfic Elements, Dudes being gamers, Everybody is gay, Fluff, Humor, M/M, Minecraft, Slow Burn, for plot reasons, their both called blyeth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26382466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkydistortion/pseuds/pinkydistortion
Summary: Byleth plays a lot of minecraft, so his twin sister decided to get him a job at a local university. Whilst working there he makes unusual friends in unusual ways.-Byhardt slow burn
Relationships: Linhardt von Hevring/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 29
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is incredible self indulgent, I really just wanted more linhardt/byleth slow burn.  
> Shout out to my gf for beta reading this and helping me with the grammar and spelling.  
> This started as a joke about how I wanted linhardt and mblyeth to play minecraft together but I got invested, and I decided to just have fun with it. I wrote this for me.  
> Hope you enjoy.

"Byleth?" 

"Yes By?" By’s brother replied lazily.

"I got you a job." 

Byleth turned his chair around to face his twin sister, staring, with that memorable blank expression, holding a wad of paper forms. 

“Why?” he asked. It’s not that he wasn’t grateful for the opportunity, but he was confused. He thought her job was her space, and he didn’t understand why she would want him disturbing that.

"You sit at that laptop all day long just playing Minecraft,” Byleth’s sister sneered, “Solo. The university had an opening for a teacher's assistant anyway, so I thought  _ who is super quiet, loves sorting out paperwork, and would do anything he's told? _ " She sets down the wad of papers with a thud as she looks at her brother. “You are.”

Byleth stared down at the papers, overwhelmed. 

He didn't really want a job, all of his last jobs had been a disaster, but he knew she was right. He really needed to start applying himself again.

"By...thank you…" he looked up at her, catching the glimpse of a rare smile from his sister. "What exactly am I doing?" 

"Teachers paperwork, helping grade tests, coffee runs, baby-sitting, you know, usually stuff." 

"Baby-sitting?"

"I'll explain tomorrow." By picking up her things, as she was about to exit the door she turned around again, to give him one more warning.

“By the way...don’t tell Dad who the headmaster is.”

“Huh?”

“I'll explain tomorrow, see you later, hope you win at Minecraft.”

“Actually it’s not a competitive game, it’s more about creative expres-” but before Byleth could finish his sentence, his sister had shut the door.

—

Sitting at the desk in front of the Garreg Mach University’s headmaster was more stressful than he thought it would be. He had at least expected By to be here with him to help, but alas, she was busy doing her own job. 

Officially, By worked as a secretary, but she spent much of her time managing student complaints and personal issues, and she wasn’t above sharing details to her brother at home, like one particular student she said would espouse his entire back-story to her regularly. Byleth wondered if he would run into him here. 

Headmaster Rhea sat in front of him, flanked by an assistant of some kind. She was an older woman with long, green hair, covered in accessories, from necklaces, to bangles, to dangling earrings. Her smile was kind, if intimidating, Byleth making note to avoid getting on her bad side. 

Her Assistant was standing, also with green hair, down to his chin, dressed almost as sharply as his gaze. Byleth kept gazing at his gold necklace, trying to see what the shapes on it were; he expected to see to be a cross, but instead he saw...a goldfish?

"So, you're both called Byleth," Byleth snapped back into reality when the sharp-dressed assistant addressed him, staring intently. "can I ask how that came to be?" 

"Oh well, our Dad really liked the name," Byleth said softly. It was a lie, but he didn’t really want to explain what the situation was, not just yet.

“Well that shouldn't be too much of an issue,” the Headmaster stared down at him, looking him up and down. 

“Do you have any nicknames, perhaps?” She smiles, “to save confusion.”

“No, By is the one with the nicknames, I just go by Byleth." 

She laughed, softly. 

"What a shame, we will have to get you one to help us not to confuse the two of you." 

She reaches into a drawer in her desk, taking out a small pin and handing it over to Byleth. It reads: "Helper".

"Welcome to our staff, Seteth will show you to your first job, as it is helping out with his class. You will help him with his computing and document management. Oh, and of course,” she reached down into her desk and pulled out a USB stick, the Garreg Mach coat of arms displayed on its casing.

“Here are all the basic lecture notes as well, in case students need copies. 

We hope your experience here is pleasant,” she gives that warm, yet intimidating smile 

The Headmaster turns to look at Seteth, who is staring directly at Byleth now. Byleth isn't going to lie and say that Seteth doesn't scare him, but he can sense a softness in him too, which makes him feel a bit more at ease.

"Is there anything else I can assist you with before heading to my lecture?" Seteth asks, opening the door to let Byleth out. 

"Yes, let the staff board know about our new helper, that will be all Seteth.”

The walk to the lecture hall is quiet, neither feeling the need for smalltalk. Byleth wondered how long it was until the first lecture began, as he walked along, clutching his laptop under his arm. He had ignored By’s advice telling him not to bring it, as he needed it for helping students away. 

He had been told that he would be given access to the teacher’s files so he could give out notes if students lost them; apparently because Seteth had no idea how to do this himself, By had mentioned to him earlier that day. In secret though, he had been hoping there would be free time where he could work on his Minecraft builds, he was almost finished the new creeper farm and now had to work on a -

"Here is the lecture hall, class begins in ten minutes so you better be ready for then." Seteth says while opening the door to the room, a couple students waiting outside are quick to funnel in. 

Before Byleth even has time to enter the room, a man with long, flowing ginger locks and a glowing expression immediately greets him.

"Byleth! I did not expect to see you at our lecture hall so early this morning! I have come to invite you to tea! As thanks for helping me find my lost-" 

he stops, looking Byleth up and down before making an expression of some sudden realisation.

"Wait, you are not Byleth, unless you changed suddenly in the night…” he thoughtfully strokes his chin before returning to a puppy-dog-like smile.

“you do very much look like her!”

Byleth kept himself from sighing aloud, not really wanting to talk to anybody today, but this was his job now. He was getting paid to talk to people.

"Sorry I'm By's brother, she's coming in at 12 today." 

_ Ok that's out of the way, he can enter the room now _ . 

“That is fine, can you let her know I am looking for her! She found something I lost a while back and I must reward her with these tea leaves,” he holds up a small tied package with a proud expression.

“I’ll send on the message-” before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted.

"Oh SICK! Are you new in class?" A different voice, immature and boisterous, called out.

Byleth turned to see two other men looking at him; one, a stocky man with a shock of pale blue hair and muscular arms; the other, a tall man with a tired-looking demeanour and dark green hair tied in a ponytail. 

The blue-haired man keeps talking, “Man, I didn’t realise we would be getting new classmates this late into the month!”

Byleth shook his head, “Sorry, I'm the new teacher’s assistant, I'll be helping out in Professor Seteth’s class." 

"Cool! What's your name?" The blue-haired man had an intense, labrador-like demeanour, but he seemed kind enough. 

Byleth was confused why they were so interested, but he thought he may as well make himself familiar with the students.

"Oh, my name is Byleth," his voice diminishing in volume as the sentence went on. He should have thought of a better way to introduce himself by now, but it's been so long since he has had to. 

“But you just said you were not Byleth? Did you not?” the man with the long ginger locks remarked.

“Yeah we’re both called...Byleth…” 

God, he really should have thought of a nickname for himself. The Headmaster was right, all he could do now was wait until one of them asked the question: “why?” Maybe, if he was lucky, none of them would care.

"Why in God’s name are you both called Byleth?" The tall man with the ponytail spoke up in a monotone voice, resulting in shock from the two others. 

Byleth wanted to scream, of course this would happen.

"Linhardt!" the long-haired man and the blue-haired man both turned around, ready to criticise him. Byleth used that as an excuse to slip into the classroom to prepare his stuff.

So many people had talked to him today, and he had not been prepared. People skills had always been a weakness of his, but he knew this would be an issue going into the job, and he knew he had to overcome it.

As he approached the front desk he noticed Seteth, looking frustrated, in front of his blank-screened laptop.

“Ah,” Seteth looks relieved, “You finally came in, here your first job is to help me turn on my computer.” he said gesturing to his laptop. 

“Sure thing.” Byleth tried not to say anything as he examined the laptop, it looked new,  _ still wouldn’t be good for playing games on _ , Blyeth thought, but it should serve Seteth’s purposes.

“The On button is on the side here.” 

“Thanks,” Seteth smiles, running a finger along the side of the laptop to find the button. “Rhea got me a new laptop since my niece accidently spilled juice on my old one, not quite used to it yet.”

He breathes out in relief as the laptop hums to life.

“It will be handy to have somebody like yourself around to help out with all this sort of thing.” 

Byleth smiled in return, unsure of what to say, before putting his bags down at the spare chair next to Seteth’s desk. 

Class started in two minutes and the room was starting to fill up. He looked around for the colourful individuals who greeted him at the door. 

The man with the long ginger locks seemed to be talking to a brunette, possibly flirting. On the other side of the room, the tall man in the ponytail had fallen asleep at his desk while his blue-haired friend was shaking him in a vain attempt to wake him up. 

There were some unusual looking characters in the class around the class, he could not help but catch the eye of an intimidating student with dark hair, with an appearance more akin to a blockbuster vampire than a university student. Byleth gulped as he looked elsewhere.

_ Just focus on the work for today, and you’ll survive this _ .

“Everybody,” Seteth stood to speak to the class. “this is my new teaching assistant, his name is Byleth. if you need copies of notes or spare pens, please go to him about it.” 

“Damn he has the same name as Byleth.” he heard one student say in the distance. 

“He's kinda cute!” he heard another say, a wave of giggles passing through the lecture hall as he tried fruitlessly to hide his face.

He wanted today to be over with fast. 

\---

“Why are you both called Byleth?” 

Byleth looked up to see the man with the ponytail staring down at him again. He looked exhausted for somebody who slept through an entire lecture. 

“Lin you can't just ask somebody why they’re called something, it's not friendly,” the blue-haired man from earlier interjected.

“Hush, Caspar.”

Byleth sighed, trying to think of a crumby excuse to get out of this. He didn't want to tell a complete stranger about the strange name his father had given to both him and his sister, but he had to think of something fast, to get this man…. _ Linhardt? _ He had to get Linhardt off his back. He quickly thought of a random answer to give him to make him lose interest.

“We’re actually clones of each other, the first human clones, she was born first so I merely took her name-” 

“So you're not going to give me an answer.” Linhardt looked at him blankly, it reminded him of how he stared at people sometimes. 

“I don't know you, I don't have to give you an answer.” Byleth replied back.

“You could get to know me. Then you could tell me.” Linhardt continued to press.

“Uh he had a point Lin. You're coming off a bit strong-” his friend, Caspar, said, before looking past Byleth to someone just past his shoulder to a woman, short of stature but with a refined air that made her feel taller. Her long white hair was tied intricately into two buns; even in just a baggy black jumper and bright red trousers, she looked effortlessly beautiful. Beside her stood the man Byleth thought looked like a vampire, dressed head to toe black, his piercing amber eyes continued to thoughtfully stare at Byleth. 

Linhart and Caspar, reading the room, slowly stepped to the side to let the pair approach.

“Sorry to interrupt.” the white haired woman spoke “Seteth told us if we were needing extra notes we could come to you about it. We arrived late, so we didn’t get the hand out.” 

“Very unprofessional from Lady Edelgard.” Caspar laughed looking at Linhardt, expecting a reaction from him, instead he just rolled his eyes. 

“How dare you excuse Lady Edelgard of being unprofessional!” the black-clad man spoke up, “We just ran into some traffic this morning on our way here.” His tone was unusually menacing, threatening even; Byleth wondered if he did theatre.

“What I'm hearing is you two overslept, nothing wrong with getting extra sleep.” Linhardt said, almost as if he was poking this dangerous-looking man on purpose to see if he would bite. 

“Hubert, pay them no mind,” the woman Edelgard, spoke. Hubert fumed, ready to kill the two others. “Anyway, may we please have those notes?”

“Sure, I’ll be able to email them to you, I just need your emails.” Byleth said, giving the best smile he could muster as he took out his laptop. 

“Of course, i'll write them down for you now.” she replied, smiling as she began to write the emails on a scrap of file paper. Byleth could not help but notice the way she held the pen, there was a certain elegance to it, as if she were royalty. He quickly typed his passcode into his laptop. He officially had his first task, and he was glad it was easy.

As soon as his laptop was unlocked, though, he realised he had made an error.

Minecraft music blared out of the laptop’s tinny speakers through the lecture hall. His heart nearly stopped. He had forgotten to actually turn off his laptop last night, he had forgotten to close the software. With all the speed he could gather, he hit the mute button hard on his laptop, closed Minecraft, and grabbed the piece of paper with the email address. 

“Great, I'll have those sent to you as soon as possible!” Blyeth said, shaking hard and sweating bullets. He had hoped that they didn’t recognise that music. 

_ Oh, who am I kidding, they look around the same age as me _ . 

If they found the new teachers assistant was still playing minecraft in his twenties he would be a laughing stock. 

_ Why can’t I just have normal hobbies like By? _

_ Like fishing ! _

Everybody just stared, in uncomfortable silence. 

Edelgard shifted her eyes to the side awkwardly, while Hubert coughed into his hands, avoiding eye contact. Byleth glared to the side a bit, seeing Caspar giggling.

“O...ok,” Edelgard gathered herself together. “Come Hubert, we will be late for our meeting with Claude.” 

Edelgard pulled Hubert out of the room with her. The man, Hubert, looked more puzzled about Edelgard’s urgency than anything else.

Before Byleth could even stop to breathe and think about what happened, another piece of paper slid in front of him. 

It read: “Linhardt#7489.”

Byleth looked at the paper then up again to see Linhardt staring down at him, grinning at him with a smile that reached his ears. 

“If you ever wanna talk about Minecraft, here's my discord ID. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.” he said before turning on his heels and leaving the room, Caspar following behind him, giving a thumbs up to Byleth before leaving the room. 

Byleth just stared down at the Discord ID, dumbfounded.

_ What the fuck just happened? _ he ponders, before the next class starts pouring in.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth must now suffer the consequences of his mistake.

“I'm just saying, if you allow me to look into the school records, I’ll show you the best place to fish near the campus.” 

“Knock it off Claude,” By replied dryly, sitting back at her desk, “I know the best places already.”

“No~ you don’t understand, Claude found an even better place for you,” a woman with long pink pigtails chirped.

“Hilda I won’t let you in either.”

Another man entered, purple-haired and speaking clearly, “There you are Claude! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

“Lorenz Keep your voice down,” the tanned man with the short beard and yellow jacket, presumably named Claude, began to bicker with the newcomer, while Hilda, the pink-haired woman, sat idly on By’s desk, swinging her legs, perhaps amused at the fighting.

Byleth watched as By’s desk was crowded by this gaggle of colourful people, his twin sister trying desperately to focus on her reading. 

“Hey By,” Byleth thought he was brave to approach, but heard his greeting come out softly.

By sighed, looking up from her book. She seemed used to the crowd of students around her desk, barely remarking on them.

“Hey buddy, how did your first day go?”

“Horrible!” Byleth despaired. “There's a vampire in my class, and some guy keeps asking me questions about me, and somehow I got his discord ID.”

By’s face contorted in confusion. “His what?” 

“A man was incredibly rude to me, then he gave me his number...because…” Byleth stopped, reluctant to recount his blunder. “...because I accidentally-”

“Hey! You’re Minecraft, aren’t you?” Claude interrupted loudly as if he was trying to be the centre of attention.

Byleth froze.

“Ex-Excuse me? My name is Byleth.” 

“Yeah, but she's Byleth, like, the O.G. Byleth,” Claude smiled, gesturing to By sitting at her desk.

“So everybody’s calling you Minecraft because of what happened in Seteth’s class.” 

Claude grins, putting his hands behind his head. 

_ How did that travel? _ Byleth thought to himself,  _ it’s only my first day... _

“Oh yeah~, Minecraft!” Hilda hopped down from By’s desk, stretching her arms. “Caspar told me about that! Linhardt seemed thrilled to have a new project as well.”

_ A new project? What? _

“Claude and I found out from the meeting with Edelgard and Hubert,” the purple-haired man, Lorenz spoke carefully, “Which you were supposed to attend!” 

He looks pointedly at Hilda, who simply laughs in his face.

“Oh yeah, Edelgard was smiling the whole time, I’ve never seen so cheery,” Hilda says, looking Byleth in the eyes, “Hell, even Hubert smiled, didn't he Lorenz? You brought a smile to our resident brooding goth guy! Are you proud, Minecraft?” 

Claude smiled at Byleth, folding his arms, almost taunting him for a response. Meanwhile, the man was frozen solid. 

_ This is terrible...maybe this is a sign, maybe I should just quit as soon as possible and return back to crying over my Classics degree and playing Minecraft all day… _

By’s laughter snapped him out of his internal monologue of self-pity. 

“I'm going to start calling you Minecraft from now on.” 

“Stop kicking me while I’m down!” He yelled, red in the face. 

She could not stop herself from laughing more. 

“Well it only makes sense that I keep the Byleth name, I was here first, Minecraft,” By smirks. “I knew people would find out about your obsession sooner or later.” 

“You're horrible.”

“I know,” she picked up her book again, returning to reading as if nothing had happened. Byleth could only huff as he made his way to the exit of the college.

Before leaving he hears a student’s voice in the corridor.

“Oh hey, there's Minecraft!”

\---

**Byleth:** Hello, is this Linhardt#7489

**Linhardt:** oh you actually messaged me, I didn’t think it would work

**Byleth:** ? 

**Linhardt:** I took a gamble, yes this is Linhardt, is this Minecraft 

**Byleth:** …

**Linhardt:** i’ll take that as yes

**Byleth:** Hilda told me that Caspar told her that you were thrilled about having a new project? 

**Byleth:** what does that mean? 

**Linhardt:** Oh I become obsessed with things sometimes, I usually drop them after a few months

**Linhardt:** I'm currently obsessed with finding out why you’re both called Byleth, this is the most exciting thing in my life right now   
**Byleth:** what the fuck 

**Linhardt:** don't worry, chances are i'll become bored with it in a month or two move onto something else.

**Linhardt:** anyway 

**Linhardt:** Minecraft 

**Byleth:** you can't just change topics like that!   
**Byleth:** you are insanely rude 

**Linhardt:** I get that a lot 

**Linhardt:** are you part of any big servers in Minecraft?   
**Linhardt:** Can i see your builds    
**Linhardt:** how are you finding the new update? 

**Byleth:** ...i play solo, and the new update has been fun, and you want to see my builds?

**Linhardt:** wanna make a server with me and Caspar?

**Byleth:** you have been nothing but rude to me today, called me your new “Project” and now you want me to play Minecraft with you?

**Linhardt:** ? yes ? 

**Byleth:** why are you asking me anyway? 

**Linhardt:** i wanna play minecraft with somebody   
**Linhardt:** Playing with Caspar is fine, but he doesn’t care about it as much as me   
**Byleth** : how do you know i care about the game? 

**Linhardt** : I don’t    
**Linhardt** : I’m guessing

**Linhardt** : I’m making an educated guess

**Byleth** : ...you’re educated guess isn’t wrong..

**Linhardt** : I know 

**Byleth** : ok but why...i’m a worker at your course, there must be somebody in the course you can play with

**Linhardt** : like i said you look like the type of person who actually you know, plays the game

**Byleth** : you've known me less than two hours

**Linhardt** : once again, an educated guess

**Byleth:** you are very strange

**Byleth:** fine i'll show you my world, but if you ask me anything about my name im logging off

**Linhardt:** Deal

**Linhardt:** My username is sleepymuuna

**Byleth:** I'll add you know.

**Byleth:** muuna ?

**Linhardt:** it's a pokemon 

**Linhardt:** hold on, Caspar wants to join, he wants to see your stuff too

**Linhardt:** i'll make a server so you can speak to us both

**Byleth:** finnneee

**Byleth:** god you two are strange    
**Linhardt:** :^)

\---

The second day was a struggle. Everybody now knew Byleth as Minecraft, people who didn't even know him knew him as Minecraft, even Hubert had called him Minecraft while asking him for a spare pen. 

No sign of Linhardt today however. He wasn't surprised, as after Byleth showed him his world, they did in fact start a server, and it seemed that he was playing all night. 

_ He's very strange _ , Byleth thought to himself,  _ why bother going to a university if you're not even going to attend the classes? _

After the final class ended he was approached by Hubert. Byleth gulped, he wasn’t quite used to the tall pallid man and his gloomy expressions.

"I came to apologise for calling you Minecraft this morning Byleth. Edelgard will also be trying her best to not refer to you as such," he said, his face remaining frozen in that serious expression of his. 

Byleth looked around the class before answering him, "Are you here to get her notes for her?"

"Yes,” Hubert spoke tersely, despite his intimidating aura, Byleth could not help but appreciate how straight to the point he was. “She was very busy with family today." 

Hubert inconspicuously reached into his coat pocket to grab an envelope, causing Byleth to brace himself for whatever was coming next. Hubert looked around the classroom to make sure the coast was clear, before sliding the envelope to Byleth. 

"From Edelgard,” he said, gazing down on Byleth. “I have been told you must read it now in my presence so that I may report back to her on your answer." 

The envelope was neat, and the letter inside printed on fine paper, stamped with a coat of arms and a familiar title.

_ Hresvelg _ ...

Opening the letter carefully, Byleth began to read: <THIS IS WHERE I WAS AT>

_ "Dear Byleth Eisner, _

_ I wanted to thank you for helping out with our class. I understand our class is full of challenging personalities, and I appreciate your patience in dealing with us. _

_ I overheard yesterday that another student was going to try to persuade you into playing Minecraft with him after yesterday's incident. If you would like him to leave you alone, as it is my fault you were embarrassed yesterday, I can get Hubert to take care of anybody who is making you uncomfortable.  _

_ Other than that, if you ever do find yourself in need of a company on Minecraft, i would be happy to help you out.  _

_ My Discord ID is FlameEmperor#6743 _

_ Please keep this a secret, yours sincerely, _

_ Edelgard von Hresvelg" _

Byleth finished scanning the letter and immediately, two thoughts sprung to his mind. 

One, the most elegant woman whom he had ever seen in his life played Minecraft, and had an extremely edgy username; and two, she seemed to have offered to get Linhardt killed if he ever got on his nerves. 

"So, what does…’take care of it’ mean, Hubert?" Byleth asked.

He looks up from the paper to see Hubert’s stoic expression hadn’t changed until now, as he cracked a smile like a cartoon villain.

"I'll make sure he never bothers you again. That's all." 

Hubert’s words were dripping with menace. It took a moment for Byleth to respond.

"Thanks for the offer but I don't want Linhardt...taken care of." 

Hubert’s grin vanished, his face returning to his usual stern stoicism. 

"And, the other matter?"

"Hmmm?"

"Will you accept Lady Edelgards request to play Minecraft with her?" 

Byleth had found the query bewildering.

_ I can understand Linhardt asking to play, he’s a clear oddball, but Edelgard… _

“I will, but why?” 

Hubert coughed, for a moment he looked flustered.

"Perhaps...this isn't my place to say, however,” he sighed. “Lady Edelgard doesn't get to enjoy ‘normal things’ often, so she saw yesterday's accident as a way to...make a new friend." 

"Oh I see," Byleth smiled. 

"However, this may also be a way to get closer to your sister, but I am unsure." 

"Excuse me?" Byleth replied, too loudly, as the emotions he struggled to usually express came bubbling to the surface. “She’s using playing Minecraft with me as a way to get closer to my sister?!” 

"It's a possibility, I do believe she has moved on, but you being…" Hubert paused to think for a second, trying to figure out how he should address the pair of them.

"...you being Byleth’s brother made her feel more at ease."

Byleth was stunned, not sure what to say.

"This place is so strange.”

"I'll let her know that you said ‘yes’ then," Hubert gathered up this belongings and headed for the door 

“Thank you very much for your time, Minecraft," he smirked, leaving the lecture hall. 

Byleth could only stand there, bewildered by what had just happened.

\---

**Minecraft Zone**

**Byleth:** Hey guys

**Caspar:** YEAHHH MINECRAFT IS ONLINE 

**Caspar:** open your world Lin hasn't shut up about wanting to see your castle again

**Linhardt:** I did shut up 

**Caspar:** only because you feel asleep lol 

**Linhardt:** anyway was there a hold at work?

**Byleth:** why weren't you in? you know it's my job to keep record of student attendance 

**Linhardt:** well I'm sorry professor i won't skip class again 

**Byleth:** ? Professor 

**Linhardt:** it’s a joke lol

**Linhardt:** I overslept, I was up all night trying to make a gold farm in the nether. 

**Caspar:** he does this a lot :/ I try to get him up early but he's a night owl lol 

**Byleth:** i see 

**Byleth:** anyway I got asked something by another student today so I can't open my world till later, but I'll be online. 

**Linhardt:** booooo

**Byleth:** i'll be back later 

\---

**Unnamed Group**

**Byleth:** hello? 

**Byleth:** is this a group chat?

**FlameEmperor:** Hello this Minecraft Byleth? 

**Byleth:** Minecraft Byleth…. 

**FlameEmperor:** hold on

**Edelgard:** there we go

**Edelgard:** Thank you for joining this group chat, Hubert is here, but he prefers to not use discord often, if at all

**Edelgard:** he's just here to make sure you don't leak this information 

**mByleth:** that you play...minecraft 

**mByleth:** mByleth ? 

**Edelgard:** Minecraft Byleth 

**mByleth:** o 

**Hubert:** If you disclose any of this, your time at Garreg Mach will prove unpleasant, and short. Edelgard has an image to upkeep and if this spreads it could damage her reputation.

**mByleth:** ? 

**Edelgard:** I have a social media presence to upkeep, and I do a lot of family business when I'm not in class

**Edelgard:** this is my free time activity 

**mByleth:** oh i see 

**mByleth:** so is Hubert your...bodyguard? 

**Edelgard:** no 

**mByleth:** boyfriend?

**Hubert:** HEAVENS NO 

**Edelgard:** N O 

**Hubert:** we are both very gay 

**Edelgard:** Hubert is my best friend, we've known each other our whole lives 

**Hubert:** our families are intertwined

**Hubert:** I manage her public relations

**Hubert:** but we are not dating, fuck that 

**Edelgard:** Anyway, back to the matter at hand 

**Edelgard:** my Minecraft username is Flame Emperor, I cannot play tonight, but I can play on Friday

**mByleth:** cool 

**mByleth:** what about you Hubert 

**Hubert:** i don't play video games 

**mByleth:** understandable 

\---

**Minecraft Zone**

**Caspar:** anyway, then Hilda broke the chair in half with her bare arms 

**Linhardt:** yikes 

**Caspar:** yeah it was sick as fuck

**Linhardt:** your tastes never fail to amuse me

**Byleth:** im back, im opening my world soon, just making tea 

**Linhardt:** !!!!

**Linhardt:** What took you so long? 

**Byleth:** i am legally not allowed to tell you 

**Linhardt:** well if you’re legally not allowed to tell us, it doesn't rule out us guessing

**Caspar:** oh boy 

**Linhardt:** since legal action is involved, I'm guessing Hubert? 

\---

**Unnamed Group**

**mByleth:** hey I know that i can't mention Edelgard but can I tell people I am talking to Hubert 

**Edelgard:** Of course, he wouldn't mind! 

**Hubert:** Excuse me?

\---

**Minecraft Zone**

**Byleth:** yeah he's shy tho 

**Byleth:** he was asking me about Minecraft 

**Byleth:** he wants to start playing but doesn't know where to start 

**Linhardt:** ….

**Linhardt:** sure 

**Caspar:** let him join the server!!

**Byleth:** YEAH I'LL ADD HIM NOW

**Linhardt:** wh

**-Hubert has joined Minecraft Zone-**

**Linhardt:** ...

**Linhardt:** I'm taking a nap

**Hubert:** …

**Caspar:** HEY Hubert 

**Caspar:** i know JACKSHIT about Minecraft in just like punching zombies so we are in the same boat 

**Byleth:** was just telling them about how I'm going to teach you how to play :) 

**Byleth:** after class lessons 

**Byleth:** on Minecraft! 

**Linhardt:** my my, professor 

**Byleth:** take your nap 

**Hubert:** Yes Byleth...you're going to teach me

**Caspar:** hell yeah Hubert plays Minecraft! 

\---

**Unnamed Group**

**Hubert:** Byleth 

**mByleth:** WHATS YOUR EMAIL ILL PAYPAL YOU THE MONEY 

**Hubert:** If it weren't for the fact Edelgard has taken an interest in you, I would end you here right now 

**Edelgard:** ? 

**Hubert:** For the sake of your privacy Edelgard, I must learn Minecraft

**Edelgard:** oh! That means the three of us can play together 

**Hubert:** i have to play with Caspar and Linhardt 

**mByleth:** im sorry 

**Edelgard:** Oh dear

**Edelgard:** wow 

**Hubert:** I'm buying it now 

**Hubert:** My email is  [ Hubertvestra@gmail.com ](mailto:hubertvestra@gmail.com)

**Hubert:** I have to come up with a username 

**Edelgard:** oh you should use the user name you always used as a teenager 

**mByleth:** money sent 

**Edelgard:** xx_DarknessMiasma_xx

**Hubert:** NO !!!

**Hubert:** I'm just setting it to HubertVV!!!

**Hubert:** Ok I now have a Minecraft account!

\---

**Minecraft Zone**

**Hubert:** Okay, as I am here to learn from Byleth, I will only be taking advice, and calling him when needs be, understood? 

**Caspar:** well if you ever need a bro who doesn't understand what's happening either im your guy 

**Linhardt:** aren't you popular, Professor Minecraft?

**Byleth:** Stop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please understand I'm just writing this for fun haha.  
> I moved and my computer ate shit at the same time so I've been writing this to deal with the stress haha.  
> Note there will be a lot of background ships but I will tag them when they appear.  
> Thank you to all who kudos and shout to my editor for dealing with my horrible grammar <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the week passes and Byleth gets to know his newfound acquaintances a bit more, he starts to learn more and more about them. And his friends want to learn a bit more about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I started Uni and so did my editor so chapters won't really have an uploading timeline   
> This chapter begins the saga of one of my fav ships as a background ship so hope you enjoy wlw  
> Claude and Sylvain end up appearing a lot more as By's friends so I will tag them when they appear more   
> Also once again shout out to my editor mwah  
> Added tags  
> -Dorothea   
> -everybody is gay

That Friday, playing Minecraft with Edelgard went better than Byleth thought. She was actually more hardcore than he was, demanding they try to slay the ender dragon as quickly as possible. Hubert had joined too, keeping up his facade of learning Minecraft, but in the end he spent more time punching dirt than building. 

"Hubert, If you want to improve in the game you actually have to try," Byleth had said over voice call to him. It was easy to call the two of them since they were roommates, and it was fun to hear their conversations at times. 

"I refuse to put in the effort into learning a silly kids game," Hubert grumbled.

"Shall we go to the Nether, Minecraft?" Edelgard asked. She now used Byleth’s nickname with ease, though it sounded odd in her refined manner of speech.

"The Nether...that actually seems like it would suit Hubert a lot better," Byleth smiled, "However, I promised Seteth I would review his notes for his class. Do you think we could continue this on Friday?" 

“Friday is good,” Edelgard’s stoicism couldn’t hide a glimmer of excitement in her voice. “In the meantime, you should show Hubert the Nether on the other server." 

He heard Hubert groan at Edelgard’s words, followed by "I'm getting a drink,” his mic audio rustling sharply as he went to leave his desk.

"I'll make sure to teach him well!" Edelgard laughed at his response.

"See you Monday,” Byleth said, hanging up on the call.

\---

Byleth ended up spending most of his weekend helping out lecturers with notes, presentations, word-processing; he even had a call from the music teacher who couldn’t figure out how to restart her laptop. He was starting to feel more like an IT guy than a classroom assistant, but he was beginning to fall into the rhythm of the work, and getting paid, he couldn't complain.

Come Monday afternoon, he had finally finished all the work on his list, just in time for lunch as well. He was on his way to the staff dining area when a blue blur almost collided with him in the hallway.

"Hey Professor!" It was Caspar, screaming his  _ other  _ nickname, a nickname Byleth really hoped would not catch on. 

"Hello Caspar, I'm not your professor, so please stop calling me that." He sighed,  _ there goes my plans for a peaceful lunch _ . It wasn’t that he didn’t like Caspar per say, more that he could be a little bit...much after a hard day’s work.

"Ok Teach!" Caspar smiled,  _ a smile is so bright and sincere it could heal the sick and feed the poor _ , Byleth thought.

"Anyway, you wanna have lunch with me and Lin? He's currently in the canteen, asleep." 

"Sure, why not?" 

Byleth followed Caspar to the canteen, making idle small talk along the way, smalltalk that mostly involved Caspar’s work-out routine.

When they arrived, Byleth saw Linhardt, passed out on a table, next to a notebook simply titled "Theories and Ideas". He could not help but feel curious about the book’s contents, but decided not to pry, sitting down across from him while Caspar sat next to him, shooting Byleth an uncharacteristically cruel grin.

“Hey Teach, watch this.”

Caspar slowly rose his arms, then suddenly slammed both his palms on the table with a bang, Linhardt abruptly jumping awake.

"Caspar,” Linhardt held his aching forehead, talking slowly. “I told you not to wake me like that…" 

As soon as Linhardt saw Byleth however, his eyes widened "Ah, you've come to join us Minecraft,” he sat up straight, appearing more conscious. “I have some theories regarding your name, would you like to discuss them with me?"

"I'm not telling you," Byleth replied, pulling out his lunchbox.

"Well, maybe if I tell you something about myself, you can give me a clue?" 

"No."

Linhardt ignored his protest. "Ok, well I'll start, my name is Linhardt. That is my fact. Now, tell me-"

"Linhardt, I'm really tired." Byleth fell back into the canteen chair, groaning as he pleaded "Can we please talk about something that isn't about me?" 

A brief silence filled the air as Caspar and Linhardt looked to each other awkwardly. 

"I guess we can't ask him the other question," Caspar frowned.

"Yes, I suppose we will simply have to ask Fishing Byleth," Linhardt replied. 

Byleth sat back up again, curious. "Fishing Byleth?" He asked.

"Oh that's what we call your sister, you’re Minecraft Byleth, and she's Fishing Byleth, ‘cause, well, she always seems to be fishing any time she can." Caspar replied, scratching the back of his neck.

Thinking about it, her being “Fishing Byleth” made sense, but then Byleth remembered what Caspar had said a moment ago.

"What was the other question?” Byleth asked, hoping it was something normal. 

Caspar looks directly at Byleth, looking unusually apprehensive. 

"Minecraft…” He spoke slower than usual. “Are you, well…” Caspar made an odd gesture, limpening his wrist.

"What?" Byleth replied dumbfounded.

“You know…” Caspar looked around nervously, “Into brunch?”

“What?”

"Are you gay?" Linhardt asked abruptly. 

A terse silence filled their table, Byleth was stunned. It's not as if they yelled it for all the canteen to hear, but he was certainly caught off guard.  _ What am I supposed to say to that? _

"Do...do I look gay?" Byleth asked cautiously. He never really dressed to look like anything, he just wore the clothes he was given, mainly his dad's hand-me-downs.

"No! We just wanna know ‘cause…" Caspar started to trail off, clearly considering his words.

"Well, we aren't het, and we wanted to know if you wanna hang out with us outside of Minecraft."

"Why do i need to be gay to hang out with you?" Byleth asked.

Linhardt buried his face in his palm, while Caspar just laughed nervously.

"All the bars we go to are gay bars," Linhardt remarked flatly. “Anyway, let me tell you…”

Byleth began to listen as Caspar and Linhardt talked to him about these bars, but his mind quickly drifted elsewhere, to a memory. When he was 19, back when he started University himself, and when he met  _ him _ , the most beautiful man he ever saw. The man who repeatedly challenged him to a “duel”. He remembered meeting him in the middle of the night to talk about their studies, he remembered how they had shared a kiss in the rain, how he had bitten him one time. He remembered how, the next year, he was gone, after changing to a different college without telling him. 

That was all pretty gay.

"I guess I am," Byleth finally replied.

"Hm?" Linhardt looked at him, puzzled.

"I guess I'm gay, I’ve been in a relationship with a man, but I...never really thought about it...my orientation I mean." 

Thinking about him again recalled his heartbreak, as he could not help but think of how he had never got to say goodbye. How the last time they saw each other, deep in those woods, he wanted to duel to the death, and Byleth could only say no. He had just walked away, making that their last meeting.

His relationship with Emile was a bit strange looking back.

He hoped he was okay.

"Well, you're okay with us, Minecraft!" Caspar practically shouted. "I'm bi, and Lin is…well Lin is Lin."

"I prefer men, but I could date whoever really," Linhardt said, looking uncharacteristically flustered, looking downward as he played with a strand of his long green hair. 

"You don't seem like the type of person who would date," Byleth said without thinking. 

Linhardt visibly froze. Caspar giggled slightly at his reaction, as Linhardt began to lower his head onto the table, in a bout of self-pity.

"No,” Linhardt groaned. “People just aren't interested in me. Or they are interested in me, and I say something stupid to scare them off.” 

He raised his head from the table to look at Byleth again. 

“I’ll generally say some rude thing without realising.”

"Girls think he’s arrogant, men think he’s clingy, and everybody else thinks he's asexual," Caspar laughed, gulping down a chunk of chicken from his lunch. 

"Unlike me, where girls think I'm hot, and men think I'm hot."

"I'm sure if my life involved going to the gym every morning at 6 AM, men would also find me hot," Linhardt sighed. “Well, it doesn't matter anymore. My parents have basically given up hope on me getting married, or doing anything for that matter.'' 

Linhardt sat back up in his chair properly again. “What about you, Minecraft?”

Byleth thought to himself, some found him aloof but charming, but others had called him slow, stupid even. Emile was the only man who ever took an interest in him and he, well…

"The one guy I did date told me that he was fascinated by me, and told me that if we ever were to fight, he would love for me to kill him."

Caspar and Linhardt stared in silence, lost for words.

Byleth realised he should probably change the subject before they asked any more questions.

"So yes! That’s my answer, I can hang out with you guys." 

Caspar turned to Linhardt, contorting his face into a sad, puppy-dog expression. "We gotta set him up with somebody who doesn't wanna kill him, we gotta help Minecraft out!" 

Linhardt went back to playing with one of the strands of his long green hair.

"Gee, I wonder where we will find somebody to look after him? We must take extra good care of our Minecraft now." He smiled softly.

Byleth had wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but then he saw the clock. He had to run to his next lecture soon, and he hadn’t touched his lunch this whole time. 

_ At this rate I’ll have to eat on the way to class. _

He quickly stood up gathering his things as the two men watched him, especially Linhardt. He would never get used to Lindhardt’s blank stare at times, it held a certain intensity.

"I’ve got to get back to work, I'll talk to you guys later," Byleth said before running off.

“Bye, Professor,” Linhardt remarked with a tone of cheek.

\--- 

Byleth was setting up his papers and laptop in class, but his mind could not help but drift to the invitation he had received. He wouldn’t mind going out with the two of them, but Linhardt could barely stay awake during class, how could he handle a bar of all places? It isn’t like he could sleep there. Linhardt’s declaration of his sexuality kept floating to the top of his brain, it had baffled him, to think of Linhardt in any sexual manner...

_ Why am I thinking about this? _ He needed to shake these thoughts, it wasn’t his place to think about the sexualities of his new friends, but still, they seemed so curious about his own, so maybe he shouldn’t worry.

Caspar being bisexual made sense honestly, but Linhardt being... _ anything _ …

_ New friends...are they even my friends?  _ Byleth thought. He had known the two of them a week, but does that make them friends? Was he friends with Edelgard and Hubert too?

These lingering thoughts dominated his brain throughout the lecture. He didn't have to do much in class anyway, he was just handing out notes to students and giving out spare pens, but he couldn't stop thinking, thinking about how quickly he’d made these friends, and how, in such little time, he became part of their Minecraft server. So much happened in a week alone, it felt unreal.

By the time the class ended his brain was fried, he felt exhausted. Only now, he realised that he had never got to eat his lunch. 

_ Well, now seems a better time than ever _ , he waited for everybody to leave the room before pulling his lunch out, finally eating the tuna sandwich he made this morning. 

“Sorry, Byleth is it?” a feminine voice asked. Looking around, surprised to hear his name, Byleth saw green eyes and shining, long brown hair. The woman looked down at him as he sat, like she was waiting for him to finish his lunch. Byleth looked at his sandwich, and sighed.

“Yeah, I’m Byleth,” Byleth wrapped up his sandwich and put it away. 

“How can I help you?” 

“Oh yes, I was wondering if you have the notes for yesterday's lecture? Or if you know if the University is offering after school lessons -” 

The door swung open, interrupting them, as Edelgard walked in.

“Minecraft! I was wondering if you-” 

Edelgard suddenly stopped, looking at Byleth and the woman, flustered. She speaks a little too quietly. “Hello,Dorothea, it's been a while.”

“Oh hello Edie! I didn’t know you had an interest in music~” the woman, Dorothea slyly winked.

Edelgard struggled to maintain eye contact, awkwardly playing with her side-ponytail. Byleth felt like he was in the middle of something right now.

“I’m not in this class, I'm just here to ask the helper for some notes,” she responded, a little too quietly, but clearly, holding herself together. 

Dorothea giggled.

“The helper has a name, and you just called him Minecraft.” She continued to chuckle, a pink colour crawling up Edelgard’s face. 

“It's been too long since we last hung out, I really miss you Edie.”

“Well, when you're next in line for a company as big as Hresvelg, you don’t really get to enjoy the company of your friends as much,” Edelgard crossed her arms, frowning.

Byleth thought to himself how hard it must be to have so much pressure on you. Thinking that his minecraft sessions with Edelgard were some of the only downtime she has right now, he really felt for her. 

“We should grab a drink! It can be a girls’ night out!” Dorothea suggested, playfully extending her hand to Edelgard.

Edelgard went beat red.

“Of course!” she said shakily, and continued “I-I-I’ll let Hubert know right away! Friday night! I'll see you later Dorothea!” she bowed her head, before quickly leaving the room, almost tripping over the doorway on the way out. 

Dorothea and Byleth watched in silence, a silence interrupted by Dorothea’s cough. 

“Well, I guess this is now a  _ double  _ girls’ night,” she murmured under her breath.

“I’ve never seen her so flustered,” Byleth thought aloud. It had all happened so quickly, and he had just realised that their Friday night Minecraft session was as good as cancelled.

“Anyway, I’ll get you those notes for you now. What's your email?” 

“Thank you Byleth, my name is Dorothea by the way,” she twirled her pen a few times before writing down her email address on a file page. “Are you friends with Edie?” 

He nearly said the truth about their Minecraft endeavours, but then he thought better than to share her secrets.

“I’m...more friends with Hubert,” Byleth lied, “But I know her, those two are close after all.”

“Do you know if they’re dating?” She looked at Byleth with a seriousness that didn’t suit her.

Byleth chuckled, “I asked them the same question and they almost killed me, they’re just really close friends.” 

“Oh!” Dorothea smiled, sliding the page with her email on it towards Byleth. 

“Thank you for that information,” she winked again, “I’ll see you again,  _ Minecraft _ .”

Byleth nodded, excited to get back to eating his sandwich.

\---

“Hey, I know this excellent fishing spot By,” the man leered, “One where me and you could get all cosy with each other, discuss our feelings.”

“Knock it off, Sylvain,” By replied curtly. 

Byleth watched this scene from afar. His sister clutching books and folders, clearly trying to get somewhere, while a tall red-haired man stood in front of her, leaning on the corridor walls, playing with the edges of his wool-lined jacket. 

By had told Byleth stories about this ‘Sylvain’ figure, but he didn't think he would ever see him attempt his pick-up lines in the flesh. Barely a second passed before Sylvain noticed him arriving. 

“Hey, Minecraft, you wanna teach me how to play someday?” Sylvain turned around, winking, “Rumour has it you’re a great teacher, maybe you could offer me some private lessons?” 

_ Ugh. _

He could only shudder.

“Christ, Sylvain, he's only been here a week,” By spoke out, beginning to walk past Sylvain. 

“I...don’t think you actually want to play Minecraft with me,” Byleth replied. 

Sylvain pushed his hair back casually, laughing. It wasn’t that Sylvain wasn't attractive in some way, but Byleth had heard the rumours, he didn’t want to get involved with anything messy.

“Don't worry Minecraft, I prefer men with longer hair anyway.” 

“Sylvain I implore you, please stop hitting on my brother, It's painful to watch,” By closed her eyes in frustration, getting a better grip on her supplies before turning to her brother. 

“Anyway, you good Minecraft?” 

“I hate how you call me that too,” Byleth moaned, “You know my friends now call you ‘fishing’ Byleth?” 

“Makes sense,” they began to walk together, but before Sylvain could protest at being left behind, a large man began to approach By; dark-skinned with white hair wrapped in a small ponytail, and a serious expression on his face, holding a bouquet of sunflowers.

“Dedue! Those flowers look beautiful,” By’s face broke into a gentle smile.

“Thank you,” the man, Dedue, nodded formally, “We grew them in the greenhouse, and they finally bloomed today. I'll be taking some to Dimitri, but he wanted me to give you one,” he carefully picked one of the sunflowers from the bouquet to gently hand to By, who accepted it graciously.

“It's a thank you from him, for helping him last year.”

“How is Dimitri holding up anyway?” Sylvain asked, concern reaching his face. “He deleted all of his social media, and hasn’t responded to our texts. Is he holding up ok?” 

“He is making good progress, from what I know,” Dedue glanced out the window for a second, “Hopefully he will be out soon, but for now, he is getting the help he needs,” he reached to hand Sylvain a sunflower from the bouquet, “He would want you to have one too.” 

“He should tell us when he wants visitors ,so we can bring him Get Well Soon gifts,” By said. “Thank you Dedue, I'm glad I was able to help; I’m glad he’s safe.”

“Thank you for always listening to him Byleth,” Dedue gently smiled, “I will see you again soon.” He noticed her brother for just a second.

“Minecraft,” he nodded as if to greet him, and continued onwards down the corridor.

Byleth was again confused as to how that nickname had spread, but his mind was stuck on other details.

“Dimitri? Is that the guy...”

By putting the sunflower down, and placing her chin into her hands.

“Yeah, he's the guy I was telling you about last year. Checked himself into hospital a while back for therapy.”

“It was the right choice,” Sylvain added, looking at his own sunflower. 

“The minute he lets us visit him though, I’m bringing him real food. I heard the texture of hospital food is gross.”

“Yeah, we’ll bring him something nice,” By smiling, looking again at her sunflower. 

“Anyway Minecraft, I want carbonara for dinner tonight.”

Byleth pulled out his phone to start taking notes on how he would need to pick up copious amounts of cheese and eggs on the way home. 

“By the way, how was your day?”

“Oh, it was fine,” he started, “Linhardt and Caspar invited me to hang out with them at a bar sometime, and…” Byleth paused, trying to recall details, “I watched Edelgard trip over a girl.” 

“Huh? That’s cute,” By seemed amused, relieved even to hear this.

“And hitting the bars with Caspar and Lin, sounds like fun,” Slyvain chuckled.

“I’m glad you're making friends here,” By shot her brother a sincere smile, as they walked down the corridor together, getting ready to head home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanna end this chapter by saying the reason I have Dimitri in the hospital right now is because   
> 1) I find his mental health in-game very interesting, I might go a little more into it in the story latter on  
> 2) I myself spent 3 weeks in a mental health ward this year and damn it if I'm going to take something away from it it will be writing about Dimitri (The food texture was shit and I spent most days reading fanfic in hospital haha)
> 
> Anyway Next chapter on Minecraft Byleth   
> Byleth 3rd Wheels two dates at the same time!! stay tuned !


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth ends up 3rd wheeling not one, but two dates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Background Edelthea and Ferdibert in this chapter.  
> This was fun to write.

**Minecraft Zone**

**Hubert:** I would like to request a lesson with you @Minecraft

**Linhardt:** aww i was about to ask him to open his world :/

**Linhardt:** so we could talk about his new castle

**Hubert:** Open world or not, I require a private call with him.

**Hubert:** This is important.

**Caspar:** what's important 

**Caspar:** you finally learn to punch other things than dirt?

**Caspar:** oooo maybe your going to learn about how to use a shovel 

**Hubert:** Shut up.

**Hubert:** @Minecraft

**Hubert:** @Minecraft

**Hubert:** @Minecraft

**Linhardt** : ugggh

**Linhardt:** I’m just gonna watch hubert punch dirt for a bit

**Caspar:** k 

**Caspar:** I’ve got a hot date

**Caspar:** at the gym

**Linhardt:** of course you do :/

**Minecraft:** I’m online, you ok hubert ?

**Hubert:** Call

**Hubert:** NOW

  
  


Byleth’s face was illuminated in pale blue light from his laptop screen, the only light in the room. He gently placed his mug of cold coffee on his desk, being careful not to disturb the mountain of notes he had to go through. His new job had managed to turn his desk into an even bigger mess. Plugging in his headset, he clicked into one of the voice chats.

“I’m on, Hubert,” He spoke into his mic, checking the connection on his computer was sound.

“Oh you’re finally here,” Hubert’s voice was riddled with static,  _ Probably using an in-built microphone _ , Byleth thought.

Hubert continued, “I was told you were a witness to this, so I must ask: why am being invited out for a drink with Dorothea and Edelgard on Friday?” 

When he logged into Minecraft, he saw Hubert’s avatar standing there, punching the ground. Byleth cringed at the sight, he knew Hubert was new to the game but he wished he would put more effort in. In the distance he saw Linhardt’s character model (one that he’d made himself) peering from the distance. He quickly threw a shovel to Hubert.

“I got you a shovel. You know that you can dig dirt faster with the shovel, right?”

“Answer the question,” Hubert’s sinister demand made a shiver run down Byleth’s spine.

“Dorothea asked her out, and Edelgard said that you would be there too,” Byleth replied, throwing more shovels at Hubert, hoping he would pick at least one of them up. 

Hubert groaned, mumbling, “Of course she didn’t realise that was a date...” 

“Hubert please use the shovel, Linhardt is watching,” Byleth begged. To Byleth’s sigh of relief, Hubert equipped one of the stone shovels and began digging downwards. He kept his eyes on Linhardt’s avatar in the background,  _ this façade must be working... _

“I’m fairly certain Dorothea intended to ask Edelgard out on a date,” Hubert continued, as he dug the hole deeper and deeper, “and as much as I prefer to be by her side, I feel this is a unique opportunity for her.” Hubert was so deep in the hole now that Byleth had to move to look down it, “...so I wish to ask you to come with me.”

Byleth was taken aback, “You want me...to accompany you third-wheeling a date?”

“Yes, so that when I leave I can provide an excuse, to let them enjoy their date in peace,” Huberts voice continued, crackling through his poor-quality mic, “Edelgard does not get a lot of time for this kind of thing, she should be allowed to enjoy it.”

“Why me?” Byleth asked.

“I trust you not to be stupid,” as Hubert said that, Byleth watched as his avatar fell into lava.

_ HubertVV tried to swim in lava. _

The minute Hubert respawned, Linhardt ran over, repeatedly hitting the crouch button.

“What is he doing?” Hubert asked, frustrated.

“He’s teabagging you,” Byleth replied matter-of-factly, as he watched Hubert punch Linhardt ineffectively.

—

Friday had arrived, and the plan was in motion. Edelgard has suggested a rather prestigious bar on the other side of town, and they would be showing up a little early to catch a table.

Edelgard had assumed that Hubert was bringing Byleth along for company, so she had approved of him coming. It did require Byleth looking for some nicer clothes, to change out of his usual oversized, got-it-from-my-dad, blue flannel shirt. He ended up just throwing on a black turtleneck with a nice pair of jeans and called it a day.  _ Comfortable and smart _ , he thought.

When he met up with Edelgard and Hubert he noticed while they didn’t dress much differently from their usual get up, they were definitely more dressed up than usual. 

Meeting up with Edelgard and Hubert, he looked them up and down briefly, examining their outfits. Edelgard wore her hair down, a black blouse, red skinny trousers, and a pair of shining black heels. Hubert was dressed entirely black as usual, but this time he wore black dress shirt, framed by a black blazer.  _ Dressed to impress... _

“Mine-,” Edelgard stopped herself mid-word, “I mean, Byleth! You look really well put together.” 

“It's okay, you can call me Minecraft,” Byleth chuckled, Edelgard smiled in response, while Hubert just rolled his eyes.

“I honestly expected you would turn up as you always are,” Hubert snidely commented. 

Ignoring Hubert, Byleth felt a little red creep onto his face. even such a mild compliment from Edelgard made him feel a little better about himself, even if he was just there to give Hubert an easy out. 

“Shall we?” Edelgard gestured to the establishment further down and across the road. Red-brick, vines crawling up trellises, red curtains and a little chalkboard menu outside; Edelgard has recommended it, and the place certainly looked as if it had an up-market vibe. As they walked over small-talk, Byleth was wondering if he could afford the drinks in this place, before noticing his phone was buzzing. Linhardt was texting him.

**Linhardt:** professor minecraft 

**Linhardt:** want to play minecraft with me right now

**Linhardt:** I wanted to show you my new Netherite sword

**Byleth:** cant, I'm out rn with Edelgard and Hubert

**Linhardt:** ??

**Byleth:** i got roped into 3rd wheel a date so Hubert can leave easier 

**Linhardt:** sounds complicated :/

**Byleth:** ikr 

**Linhardt:** well if the date bombs i'm here to talk 

**Byleth:** Thanks Linhardt but Ill be fine

**Linhardt:** anyway let me tell you about my latest build

**Linhardt:** I decided to finally build a gold farm in the nether to see what the fuss is about and I'm following this tutorial online but the issue is ...

"Well we’re here" Edelgard announced as they stood in front of the place. Byleth’s eyes were fixed on the red curtains, red cushions, posters of red wine...

"She should be here in 10 minutes if our timing is correct." 

“I’ll see if it’s crowded,” Hubert peered into one of the establishment’s windows, and then, suddenly, froze.

"Edelgard?" 

"Yes Hubert?”

"Dorothea is already here," Hubert began to clench his fists, "and she brought Ferdinand." 

Byleth went to have a look, and through the window he saw Dorothea, sitting at a table with the so-called Ferdinand.

Dorothea was outstandingly glamorous, her hair tied in a stylish, messy bun, wearing a short black dress, snug on her body, her golden earrings dangling as she laughed talking to her friend across the table. Byleth recognised him, Ferdinand, as the man who has tried to offer him tea on his first day. He could barely see what he was wearing, but his long ginger hair flowing into curls made him hard not to recognise.

"Hubert, I am begging you not to cause a scene." Edelgard pleaded "please do not fight with Ferdinand." 

"I will make no promises." Hubert unclenched his fists to open the door for Edelgard, Byleth trailing behind her. 

The warmth of the interior hit him, red curtains hung across the bar, painted canvas decorating walls of red brick and dark wood panels. Flower vases and candles sat at tables, some lit, some not, and the smell of red wine was thick in the air.

It didn’t seem too busy, but Byleth was grateful, he never was good with noise.

It wasn’t long before Dorothea saw they had entered; she stood up, gesturing Edelgard and the rest over. Ferdinand crossed his legs, looking cautious. Up-close Byleth could see he was wearing a salmon shirt and clean, white chinos.

_ Fancy, I wonder if he plays tennis… _ Byleth aimlessly pondered as he took a seat next to Hubert and Ferdinand at the table.

“Edie!” Dorothea hadn’t sat down yet, her earrings swang as she turned to look at Edelgard, her smile radiant, “You look fabulous.”

Edelgard rose a hand to her face, trying to hide the red colour creeping onto it as she looked back at Dorothea.

“A-as do you Dorothea. I love what you’ve done with your hair.”

Dorothea smiled graciously, pink creeping up her cheeks. Even after all their interactions, it honestly shocked Byleth to see Edelgard, authoritative, strong-willed, constantly focused on her work, trying to retain her composure talking to a crush. Seeing them both stand, Byleth saw why Edelgard had worn those shining heels: Dorothea was a good few inches taller, perhaps she had wanted to close the gap. It hadn’t worked however, as Dorothea herself was wearing tall heels of her own; she towered over the smartly-dressed Hresvelg heiress.

"We got here a bit early and ordered ahead, if that’s okay,” Dorothea said, finally sitting down. She waited until everyone was seated before turning to Ferdinand. “Ferdie here ordered a bottle of merlot for the table." 

Ferdinand gave a polite smile, scratching the back of his neck.

Edelgard seemed uncharacteristically dazed, but after a moment she responded, “Merlot is good, it’s actually Hubert’s favourite.”

It was not long before the expected happened, Dorothea and Edelgard falling into a conversation about how they’ve been, while Byleth found himself sitting in between Ferdinand and Hubert neither of whom seemed happy to “third-wheel”, and neither of whom seemed pleased to see each other.

_ Maybe they will get along…? _

"So Byleth not-Byleth!” Ferdinand greeted Byleth amicably, but kept a contemptuous eye on Hubert, “I didn't know you were a friend of Edelgard, or her…secretary." 

Hubert was on his phone. Byleth figured the chance of the pair getting along now seemed low.

"Oh you can call me Minecraft, it's fine," Byleth replied, now used to the nickname. "I help Hubert with stuff in the class, you know, so we've been friendly." 

"Really?” Ferdinand smiled indignantly, emmenating a smug cheek Byleth hadn’t seen from him before. “The Hubert doing a Masters in Software while studying for two additional Bachelor’s degrees? For fun? Needs help?" Ferdinand laughed heartily, "Maybe Hubert has a weakness after all!” 

Hubert groans, putting down his phone.

"This is coming from Ferdinand, the man who has yet to surpass Edelgard or myself in anything."

"You know very well that I am a better orator than you, I do not present myself like a villain!" 

Byleth sensed a history as the two bickered, and was struck by just how different they seemed, Ferdinand’s glowing face ( _ was that make-up? _ ) and bright locks, shaking as he argued with great expression, stood in sharp contrast to Hubert’s short black hair and semi-permanent dour glare.

"Um," Byleth interjected, "Ferdinand, this wine you ordered is lovely." In truth, he thought it was nothing special, but he felt compelled to interrupt.

Ferdinand swirled it around in his glass, looking elegant even as he hauntily huffed, "I would have preferred a cocktail, but Dorothea wanted to impress Edelgard." 

Ferdinand then looked towards the pair of women, Byleth following suit, seeing Edelgard and Dorothea sitting closer to one another. Edelgard was talking now, as Dorothea listened, resting her head on her hand as she gazed at her, smiling, as if she were saying the most interesting things in the world.  _ It’s going well _ , Byleth could not help but feel a little envious.

"I hope someday, someone would look at me like that," Ferdinand said as if reading Byleth’s mind, taking a slow sip on the red wine.

“What about you, Minecraft? Any interesting love stories?" 

"No not at the moment." 

“Well you’re very handsome, I’m sure you’ll have pursuers in no time,” Ferdinand grinned, he seemed to glow as Byleth blushed, embarrassed.

Before he could reply, Ferdinand regarded Hubert, “What about you, Hubert? Still single and alone?”

"Yes Ferdinand,” Hubert replied in a low tone, picking up his phone again, “And if I'm lucky, I'll stay that way. I don't have time for romance." 

"Figures." 

The tension was unbearable, and Byleth was already trying to chart an escape. He looked down, his wine glass was empty.

"I'm going to go get a drink from the bar, be right back." He said quickly, getting up, not giving anybody enough time to give him any extra orders. 

Skimming the menu, he ordered the first cocktail he saw, nevertheless cringing at the price. He went to check his phone, wondering if he’d have more messages.

He had.

10 messages from Linhardt. 

**Linhardt:** ...and that's why I think that the first gold farm was a failure

**Linhardt:** oh you've gone offline

**Linhardt:** Well while you're not here to stop me I wanted to run a name theory by you and see if it's right or not

**Linhardt:** are you both called byleth because you were twins separated by birth?

**Linhardt:** and you met each other when it was too late to change your names back? 

**Linhardt:** but I also have the theory that this is all an elaborate jest played by the two of you 

**Linhardt:** maybe byleth isn't your really name and you are just pulling an elaborate joke

**Linhardt:** you’re a cruel man for pulling such an elaborate trick on us like that.

**Linhardt:** oh, actually scrap that, i had a better theory I have to write this one down

**Linhardt:** oh never mind that one was stupid 

**Byleth:** both wrong

**Linhardt:** ah, I see 

“I can’t stand being a third wheel at that table,” Byleth heard Hubert say as he sat himself down beside him at one of the barstools.

“One espresso martini, please.”

"They've been gazing into each other’s eyes lovingly for too long,” Ferdinand sat on a barstool on Byleth’s other side, “One spiked raspberry sweet tea, please!”

Now sandwiched between the two men, the tension Byleth had felt in the air was now suffocating. He reached for his phone.

**Byleth:** linhardt help me 

**Linhardt:** oh my Professor, whats wrong?

**Byleth:** stop calling me that 

**Linhardt:** oh my Minecraft, whats wrong?

**Byleth:** I'm 3rd wheeling a hate-date right now, I'm beside Hubert and Ferdinand and they HATE each other

**Byleth:** I ran to the bar to escape and they followed me so the real date could have some space

**Linhardt:** lol sucks to be you

**Byleth:** D:

**Linhardt:** you could...ditch them...and play….minecraft with me 

**Byleth:** tempting but I promised Hubert to help him

**Byleth:** and I think if I let him down he will kill me

**Linhardt:** he won't be that upset with you :/

**Byleth:** i mean literally kill me D:

Looking up from his phone, Byleth sipped at the bright cocktail he’d ordered on a whim. It wasn’t so bad, and he began to feel a little calmer.  _ Maybe I should take Linhardt here some time... _

_ And Caspar, why not? _

He had zoned out Hubert and Ferdinand, expecting more argument, but listening now he heard their conversation had become more normal. He sighed in relief.

"I will say,” Hubert said, picking up his cocktail glass and looking at it as if it were a rare butterfly, "I have always admired your ability to stay positive, Ferdinand.”

Ferdinand playfully glared at Hubert, before replying, “Well Hubert, though you may be bitter as the coffee you drink, I admire your discipline, and intelligence." Ferdinand smiled proudly. 

_ Is this some kind of game of dueling compliments?  _ Byleth wondered to himself, sensing a change in the tone of tension, awed even, by this sudden change in tone.

"This espresso martini is actually quite sweet,” Hubert stated, before gently pushing it towards Ferdinand, "if you would like a taste."

Ferdinand grabbed the glass, his skin flushed. 

_ Oh my God, he’s blushing! _

"Gladly!" Ferdinand practically shouted back, "I must insist you taste mine as well!”

"Whatever you say, Ferdie,” Hubert smirked as he used the nickname Dorothea so frequently thrown around.

_ The tension in the air... _

**Byleth:** sexual tension 

**Linhardt:** ! 

**Byleth:** Hubert and Ferdinand are flirting with each other

**Linhardt:** …

**Byleth:** help me 

**Byleth:** this is too much for me

**Linhardt:** honestly I never thought of hubert and ferdinand getting along

**Linhardt:** Back in 1st year of history they used to BEG not to be on group projects together

**Linhardt:** seteth usually just ignored them

**Byleth:** linhardt help me pLEASE

**Linhardt:** Do you really want to know my fool-proof solution to your problem?

**Byleth:** yes!!

**Linhardt:** just leave

**Byleth:** ...

**Byleth:** are you serious

**Linhardt:** tell them that u need to head home 

**Linhardt:** or that you’re not feeling well 

**Byleth:** ...

**Linhardt:** works every time for me 

**Byleth:** Ok i'm going to try it now 

\--

Leaving was a simpler affair that Byleth expected, he had simply gotten up, told Edelgard he had to go, and she had said it was fine. To his surprise, Dorothea had gave him a friendly hug ( _ a fragrant perfume smell _ …) before giving him her number, in case he “ever needed advice,” Byleth could not say anything but thank you.

She seemed sweet, Byleth hoped the date had gone well. Before he left, he took one last look at Ferdinand and Hubert, who seemed engrossed in their own conversation. In the end, he became the only third-wheel.

Walking home, Byleth texted Linhardt to tell him of his escape, expecting him to berate him and tell him to hurry home to play Minecraft with him; and yet despite his compulsion to escape, he enjoyed his time out, getting to know these strange friends he had come to know.

**Byleth:** hey

**Byleth:** sorry for calling you strange before

**Byleth:** you’re pretty cool

**Linhardt:** ??

**Linhardt:** i'm not used to such praise

**Linhardt:** but since it's coming from you i'll take it

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is when stuff starts to get faster :)   
> Wanna say thank you to everybody who is reading this fic u_u I've been having a lot of fun writing it and it's been nice to try out a new hobby.  
> I did some small doodles to say thank you to those reading, I'll try do more doodles as time goes on but I'm currently doing Uni work AND linhardt week art (Love my boy)  
> thank you for reading :) see you next chapter   
> \---  
> Doodles   
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/xpresso_art/status/1315292902768234496?s=20  
> Tumblr: https://xpressoart.tumblr.com/post/631688604155101184/working-on-other-stuff-so-doodle-time-miinnnneeee


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth spends his first payday with finally hanging out with Linhardt and Caspar, and discovered more about himself than he expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing this: I miss da club

A few weeks had passed, and Byleth was starting to settle into the job. Since that bewildering date night, Dorothea and Edelgard had always stopped by his class to say hi; afterall, the night had ended with them getting together, and Edelgard seemed to glow in Dorothea’s presence. She always seemed eager to tell him and Hubert about their dates, making pasta and cuddling while watching stupid movies. Byleth couldn’t be happier for them.

Meanwhile, Hubert and Ferdinand have been trying to act like they didn't spend an entire evening fawning over each other. Sometimes, Byleth would get caught in the middle of their stilted conversations, but after a while he began to find it more funny than awkward. He was getting to know a lot of people, students and staff alike, and found that, against all his expectations, he was beginning to enjoy his time at work.

Also, the pay wasn’t bad.

“I heard you got paid, Minecraft,” Linhardt had approached him in the middle of his lunch break, giving him that classic stoic stare of his, “Do you want to hang out with myself and Caspar tonight?”

“How did you find out I got paid…?” Byleth stopped before he could finish, realising this was Linhardt, the same Linhardt who seemed to have dedicated himself to researching him.

“Well, in my quest to solve the mystery of your shared name...” Linhardt took a seat beside him as he spoke, folding his arms onto the table and plopping his face down on the table, “...I decided to-”

“You read our files, didn’t you? Me and By?” Byleth interjected, shaking his head.

“You know it really isn’t very hard to access staff files, I expected more trouble,” Linhardt yawned, his head lazily tilting on his folded arms.

“I could report you for that, you could be expelled.” 

“Okay then, I don’t care either way,” Linhardt's voice was starting to trail off as his head lay horizontally on his arms, “So, tonight, want to hang out?”

_ He ignored the threat?  _ Byleth thought,  _ Okay, actually that makes sense, It’s Linhardt after all. Oh, what the hell...  _

“Okay...I guess?”

“Excellent,” Linhardt at this stage was passing from the waking realm, mumbling words, “It’s a...d…” his eyes began to close, as his words turned into light snores. 

Byleth regarded Linhardt as he slept on the table, wondering why he was even attending University if he didn't care about being expelled, or any of the classes for that matter. He decided to leave him there, snoring gently as he dreamed of greater mysteries.

\---

They were to meet at 9, but Byleth had arrived a little early, waiting on the street corner, scratching his neck anxiously. He hasn’t exactly dressed up, he was simply in a long t-shirt and jeans, but he was wondering what the others would wear. Caspar often came to class dressed like he was about to hit the gym at any given moment, while Linhardt dressed like he had just rolled out of bed.

_ I wonder what he looks nice in?  _ Byleth found himself thinking, to his surprise. He was getting a little worried by how often his mind drifted to the lethargic student, who now seemed to live in his mind rent-free.

“Yo, Minecraft!” he heard Caspar’s voice yelling from nearby, as he turned to see him and Linhardt walking up. Linhardt’s long green hair was fully down, straightened, and shimmering. He wore a black t-shirt over a striped, long-sleeved undershirt, and black pants that flare at the bottom.  _ Oh wow... _

Turning to Caspar though, his jaw hit the ground; he was wearing black short shorts bulging from his thigh muscles, and a mesh shirt. Byleth found his eyes gravitating towards his very-visible chest, staring at the scars he had just noticed under Caspar’s pecs. It didn’t take long for Caspar to notice him staring, he laughed heartily.   
“I spent good money on these puppies, I’ve got to show them off!” he said, beginning to flex his muscles.

“Oh...sorry,” Byleth looked away, blushing, and just a little paranoid about being seen as a creep, “I just...didn’t ever expect to see you dressed like this.”

Caspar heartily chuckled in response. Byleth’s gaze drifted back to Linhardt, and he noticed on his t-shirt there was a small symbol of... _ a pikachu? A conversation starter perhaps? _

“You look nice,” Byleth managed to say as they started walking.   
  


“You look the same as always,” Linhardt replied with his usual flatness of tone.

“Yeah,” Byleth awkwardly scratched the back of his neck again, “I should have put more effort in..." 

"I never said it was a bad thing," Linhardt flashed him a smile, "comfort is important. " 

“Yeah,” Byleth smiled back but wasn’t sure what to say. The air was still, tense even.

_ Maybe I should mention the Pikachu... _

“So, you like-”

“We’re here!” Caspar yelled abruptly, shocking Byleth out of his sentence. Looking up, he saw a flashing neon sign over a slick, modern building front. He looked to Linhardt, who gazed at the sign like it was an old friend, the neon glow painting his pale face in a warm coloUr.

He turned to Byleth, “Admission is free, don't worry too much,” Linhardt said, leading the way into the club. Caspar quickly caught up, and Byleth apprehensively followed behind as they flashed their IDs to the bouncer. Loud dance-pop blared through the establishment. The club was dark and slick, leather seating around the sides, a bar topped in glass, with pride flags hanging from the ceiling, gay, lesbian, transgender, pansexual, all sorts. An old stage stood above an open dancefloor under coloured lights, and above it all, a glittering retro disco ball. It wasn’t too busy, there were a few people sitting by the bar, a few tables surrounded by gaggles of young people. The dance floor was almost empty,  _ WAS almost empty _ , Byleth thought as he watched Caspar almost run directly towards it, pumping his shoulders. He followed Linhardt to a small table, the sluggish student taking out his phone and idly scrolling through it.

“It's always good to arrive at these places a bit early, just so you can get a seat,” Linhardt said, not looking up from his phone, “That way, once it gets super crowded you don’t get lost in the chaos.” 

Byleth just nodded. He found it interesting how much he was able to relate to Linhardt at times like this, as they sat awkwardly in this little corner of the club. Linhardt looked up from his phone, meeting Byleth’s eyes once more.

“I never expected you to be one for clubs,” Byleth said.

“Yeah, I could see why you would think that,” Linhardt smiled “In truth, I’m not. I don’t like dancing,” Linhardt looked up at the dance floor, Byleth following his gaze to see Caspar, already dancing like a madman without a single drink in him. Linhardt continued, “I like the vibe though, growing up I was in a very…” he paused, looking for the word, “...hetero-normative environment, let’s just say, so I enjoy the atmosphere.” 

Byleth nodded, not sure how to reply. It was nice to hear Linhardt opening up, in fact, it made him feel oddly giddy, an emotion he was trying to hide.

“So...you wanna get a drink?” Linhardt’s question surprised Byleth out of the daze he kept slipping in and out of.

“Do you want anything?” Byleth asked, shifting off of the chair.  _ May as well offer, it’s my payday after all _ .

Linhardt smiled, thinking for a second, “Something sweet would be nice.” 

After discreetly asking the barwoman for help, Byleth ended up getting something called “Angel tea”, iced tea with liquor and a slice of lemon; and a rum and coke for himself.

He placed the opulent cocktail on the table in front of Linhardt, nervously awaiting his reaction. Linhardt blinked looking at the drink, before looking to Byleth , wide-eyed, “This...this is my favorite drink.” He picked it up, swirling the straw around, “The Angel Tea...how did you know?”

“Educated guess?” Byleth responded, hoping that would make Linhardt smile, and it did.  _ I can’t believe my luck… _

As Linhardt drank, Byleth felt unusually happy, almost like he was floating, but felt red creep to his face, embarrassed at how he was feeling,  _ Why am I feeling like this... _

“So tell me more about yourself,” Linhardt asked, once again snapping Byleth out of a daze.

“Oh! Well…” Byleth started, before realising that there wasn’t much interesting to say. “I have a bachelor’s in Classics, I used to work in McDonald's’, uh…” he thought hard, trying to think of more to say before he was cut off by another query from Linhardt.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-five.”

“Really? You don't look at day over twenty.”

“And you?”

“I’m twenty-two,” Linhardt sipped eagerly on his colourful cocktail.

“You look about twenty-two-”

“My turn again, where were you born?”

"Huh?"

"What type of school did you attend?"

"Lin-"

"Tell me about your father," Linhardt’s eyes had returned to that familiar intense glare.

“Linhardt, are you just trying to get information out of me to solve the “same-name” mystery?” Byleth asked, “I feel like we’re playing 20 questions.” 

Linhardt blinked in response before returning to his drink, “My apologies.” 

The music in the club had grown louder, as more crowds shifted into the place, but it did nothing to penetrate the awkward silence between him and Linhardt. Byleth couldn’t help but feel the terse atmosphere reminded him of being in-between Ferdinand and Hubert.

_ Wait, I just remembered... _

“So, do you like Pokémon?” Byleth asked, hoping to break the tension. He realised he’d done just that when Linhardt’s eyes widened, practically sparkling, his hand gripping his glass as if he were about to burst in excitement.

“Minecraft…” he started slowly, “I adore Pokémon. It’s a special interest of mine.” Linhardt pulled out his phone, opening a picture folder that was filled with countless photos taken of his game devices.

“This is my team, this is my powerhouse Slaking,” Linhardt showed him a picture of a cartoonish ape lying on its side next to a series of inscrutable numbers, “I usually use a lot of Sinnoh Pokémon on my team but I make exceptions sometimes..." 

Linhardt continued to talk about Pokémon at extreme length while Byleth listened. He did not understand a word of the byzantine terms Linhardt was throwing around, he’d managed to avoid Pokémon as a kid, and yet despite that, he was engrossed hearing Linhardt talk so passionately. He watched his hands as he showed him pictures of more strange, colourful animals, watched his lips as he talked...

_ Oh...oh no... _

"Minecraft are you okay? You keep spacing out on me," Linhardt asked, putting his phone down "Sorry I must have gone overboard with explaining Pokémon." 

His face remained stoic as he apologised, but Byleth wanted to make it clear he wasn’t bored,  _ or anything else for that matter _ .

“Oh, no, sorry it’s just…” Byleth was completely lost for words, “I’m...I’m going to join Caspar on the dance floor for a bit.”

Without looking back, Byleth ran to the dance floor.

_ Gods, I must look like such an asshole,  _ Byleth thought, as a storm of emotions broiled in his head. He was feeling things, things he hadn’t felt in years, and all he could think to do was run away. His eyes scanned the dance floor which had grown increasingly crowded, looking for a tuft of blue hair. 

_ No, no, where is he… _

Byleth pushed through the dancers, the colourfully dressed clientele of this gay bar until finally he saw not a tuft of blue hair, but Caspar’s pecs through his mesh shirt. Looking up, He saw why he’d struggled to find his friend: he’d donned a leather cowboy hat.

“Yeaaah!” Caspar yelled over the music, “Welcome to the dance floor Minecraft!”

Byleth wanted to ask about the leather cowboy hat, but figured it could wait.

“Caspar!” Byleth yelled to hear himself, “We are friends right?!” Byleth began to dance next to him, but his energy couldn’t match Caspar’s, he had experience on his side.

“Yeah, we’re friends! Why’re you asking?!”

“What do you do when you like someone?!” Byleth’s throat was getting tired from the yelling already as he struggled not to step on people’s shoes.

“Oh! I’ve been trying to impress this guy for ages by making him laugh! You know, basic shit!” Caspar adjusted his dancing as the music changed tracks, as Byleth wondered if he’d been dancing the whole time. “Here! Wear this!” Caspar shouted as he placed the cowboy hat on Byleth’s head.

“So I should just be myself?!”

“I dunno bro, I’m not that great at romance!” Caspar’s dancing began to slow down with the song’s rhythm, “A girl asked me to smash one time and I thought she meant the fighting game so I’m kinda terrible at this stuff!”

“Seriously?!”

“Hey, it happen-Holy shit Ashe is here!” Caspar practically screamed as he danced across the room to meet his friend from class, “Talk to you later Minecraft, tell Linhardt that Operation Cat is in motion!”

Byleth watched as he moved like water through the crowd to join the young grey-haired man Byleth had seen around the university. He hoped Caspar’s “Operation” would go well, but couldn’t help feel that he was even more lost than before.

_ I guess I’ll go back to check on Linhardt…  _ Byleth thought, but he felt so weird, so giddy like his stomach was full of butterflies. Dancing through the crowd, wearing the ridiculous cowboy hat, Byleth found himself having more fun than he thought he would. He thought he’d hate the noise, but the atmosphere was liberating,  _ Linhardt was right, God I feel terrible leaving him there… _

When the small table was in view again, Byleth stopped in his tracks.

Linhardt was talking to a complete stranger, entertaining him, laughing as he brushed a strand of long hair behind his ear. Byleth felt his stomach-churning, but he couldn’t look away, as the stranger pulled Linhardt up from his seat, running his hands through his hair.

Byleth watched them close in for a kiss.

Byleth ran back through the dancefloor, trying to get to the bathroom. Suddenly the noise was too loud, it was all too intense. He locked himself in a stall, his head falling into his hands as he let out a pathetic wail. It had all clicked.

He had a crush on the strange man who saw him as a project. 

He liked Linhardt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHA BYHARDT TIME BYHARDT TIME BYHARDT TIME  
> my gf told me that she didn't see Linhardt as somebody who would enjoy the club but I was pointing out to her that we are both autistic and I love going to clubs cause its phone ( i am more of a sit on my phone person at the club haha)  
> Anyway I have another doodle for this chapter here   
> https://twitter.com/xpresso_art/status/1319708269737353218?s=20  
> I'm currently working hard on Linhardt week stuff so I might do a Minecraft Byleth drawing for it if so ill link it here <3  
> Thank you all so much for reading so far and I hope you are all ready for Byleth to enter crush hell <3


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth has to deal with the aftermath of his discovery, and his friends are no help with it at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're surprised about a quick update I am too, my editor got this too me really quickly (Thank you editor ily)   
> While writing this I did nothing but listen to Stupid with Love from the Mean Girls Musical

Byleth sat by the river, dipping his toes in the water, the leather cowboy hat from last night sat beside him on the grassy slope.

Under the dappled trees of this river, hidden away on campus grounds, By was fishing. She was reeling in a line as Claude stood next to her with an unusually concentrated look on his face as he sorted through her colourful hooks of many shapes and sizes. Sylvain was there too, lying on the grass next to Byleth, enjoying the rays of the hot sun.

In the river itself towards the shallows was a young girl with thick, bright green hair, playing in the water and getting her dungarees needlessly wet.  _ Flayn… _

Seteth had asked Byleth to keep an eye on the girl who he claimed was his “niece”, although given their resemblance, Byleth was awfully suspicious. It was no bother though, he was simply glad to get out of the classroom for a bit. He couldn’t look Linhardt in the eyes after last night, and truthfully, he wanted to avoid everyone in general, but By had insisted she help after seeing him.

After his meltdown last night he ran home, texting Caspar that he didn’t feel very well. He had muted the discord servers he was in, only talking a bit in the Edelgard and Hubert one. He knew they had their own stuff going on,  _ I can’t bother them with my silly crush… _

“So~ Minecraft,” Claude spoke up as he smiled out the side of his face, gently pressing a grub onto a fishhook, “Why the long face? Creepers blow up your house?”

“What the hell is a creeper?” Sylvain asked as he slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his neck.

Byleth found himself replying automatically, “It’s a mob enemy in Minecraft, when they get too close, they explo-”

“Don’t dodge the question,” By commented as, without turning around, she took the loaded hook from Claude, attached it, and cast her line out to the deeper waters.

Byleth sighed, “It’s nothing, just…” Byleth wondered whether he should even be talking to By’s friends about this.  _ Oh, what the hell... _

“I think I like somebody.”

“Sorry Minecraft, I’m pretty sure Edelgard’s taken,” Sylvain said as he stretched and got up, moving to sit by the river with Byleth, dipping his feet in the water, “or is it Hubert?”

“Yes, Edelgard is dating somebody right now,” By chimed in, still not turning around. Byleth could barely see her face over the big bucket hat she often wore while fishing. She cast her line again, this time even further, much to Flayn’s excitement as she watched from the shallows.

“I’m not interested in Edelgard,” Byleth replied, “She’s a lesbian anyway, and I’m certainly not into Hubert, he has his own stuff going on.”

“She is?!” Sylvain nearly fell into the river, completely ignoring what Byleth had said about Hubert.

“Duh, have you seen her nails?” By remarked, keeping her eye on the river. “Sure, me and her were nearly a thing a few times, did you just forget Sylvain?”

Thinking back, Byleth remembered that Hubert had said Edelgard had been interested in his sister. He hadn’t realised however that the interest had ever been requited.

_ Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised, By can be a ladies’ lady when she wants… _

Claude laughed, as he placed the bait down, putting his hands on his hips. “You guys, I think it’s pretty obvious who he likes,” he said, winking at Byleth.

_ Does he actually know? Is he fucking with me? _ Byleth could only wonder. Claude was devious, but Byleth was so desperate to talk to someone about this he considered telling him for a moment.

“His taste in people has always been a little nuts,” By commented, “Sure, tell them about Emile.”

“Absolutely not!” Byleth cried out.

  
“Oh? What about Constance then? She was a real treat, my favourite even,” By laughed, still not taking her eyes off the river.

“I need actual help with this, not to be made fun of,” Byleth felt he was hitting a brick wall, By bringing up his exes depressed him, but he was desperate.  _ I can’t handle this alone... _

“So, who is it you like anyway?” Sylvain slyly asked, kicking the flowing water with his feet, “It isn’t Linhardt is it?”

Byleth couldn’t hide the knot in his stomach, he wanted to die as By, Claude, and Sylvain watched his facial expression carefully.

“...Yes.”

“I knew it!” Claude declared jubilantly.

“Seriously, Linhardt?” By finally turned to face her brother.

“I would have thought you’d be into someone a bit…” By considered parsing her words, then decides not to, “...crazier. You usually go for the ones you think you can fix.”

Byleth cringed, not one did he think he could  _ fix _ Emile or Constance, he dated them because he liked them. He supposed it looked odd, a stoic like him having such emotionally-driven partners.

_ Is Linhardt crazy? _

“He broke into the campus to read our files.”

“And you didn’t report him,” By rolled her eyes, “Well, not that I would have, it isn’t like they pay me enough.”

“Should I tell uncle?” Flayn revealed she had come to shore and was listening in, squatting beside By’s bucket of caught fish, looking up like a puppy having a treat held over their head.

“Flayn,” By smiled gently, “You can have all the fish in this bucket if you tell your Dad-I mean, your uncle nothing.” She pushed the bucket forward with her feet.

“Deal!” Flayn let loose a grand smile as she lifted the bucket of fish with both hands, water spilling out the sides.

“Well, wooing Linhardt shouldn’t be too difficult,” Claude commented, looking off to the distance behind them.

Sylvain laughed, “Yeah, as long as you’ve got something he’s interested in he’ll be all over you in seconds.” He went to stand up, drying his feet on the grass.

“Is someone coming?” By asked, reeling in her line and getting ready to pack up. Byleth looked behind them to the distance, he saw Dedue first, and next to him a tall man with dirty, shaggy blond hair, wearing a great fluffy blue jacket.

“Dimitri!” Sylvain yelled, waving his hands in the air. Claude began to run over to the pair of them as if he were ready to pounce on the blond man. As the pair approached, Byleth noticed, the blond man,  _ Dimitri _ , had a white patch over one of his eyes.

“Hey, Dimitri!” By waved as he and Dedue finally arrived at the river’s shore. Flayn ran over to hug Dimitri’s legs, stopping him in his tracks.

“It’s...good to see you all again,” Dimitri started, a smile escaping his lips as he leaned down to pick up Flayn, who seemed delighted to ride on the man’s shoulders. “I was given permission to leave the hospital grounds. They’ve been impressed with my progress, I should be coming home soon.I also had to speak to Rhea about some….stuff so decided to say hello to who I could. Also...” Dimitri turned to look to Dedue,  _ for approval?  _ Byleth thought. Dedue betrayed no reaction he could read easily,  _ worried, perhaps... _

Dimitri continued, “I’ve also decided to throw a party, at the end of the month, once I’m home.”

“What?!” Claude, By, and Sylvain practically yelled in unison.

Dedue had given up keeping face, burying his head in his hands, “Dimitri, as your partner and closest friend, I must protest this.”

“Yeah, won’t you be overwhelmed?” By asked.

“I mean, I’m always down to party, you know me,” Sylvain began, “But, are you sure this is...smart?”

Dimitri nodded, “I think I will be fine. I’ll sit out if it becomes too much.” He smiled, “Besides, I want to celebrate being with my friends again.” 

His eyes passed over them all, before reaching Byleth. “Oh! You must be Minecraft,” he said, smiling.

_ How does he know? _

“Uh, yes, I’m Minecraft,” Byleth responded as calmly as he could.

“Well,  _ Minecraft _ ,” Dimitri speaks it as if this were his first time saying it, “You are more than welcome to join, Dedue has told me he trusts you, so I shall as well. You could bring a date too!”

It made Byleth feel better to know Dedue had been vouching for him, even if it was a little surprising.

Dimitri lowered Flayn off his shoulders onto the ground again, ignoring her pouting, “Anyway, Dedue and I were thinking of getting coffee, do any of you wish to join us?”

Sylvain and Claude agreed to go, but By held back, keeping to her promise to help Byleth look after Flayn, especially as she had just won herself a bucket full of river fish. Byleth could not help but wonder about the two men who he knew so little about.

-

**Unnamed group**

**Edelgard** : @mByleth Was Dimitri on campus today?

**mBlyeth** : Yes, 

**Edelgard** : Glad to see he's doing better.

**mBlyeth** : you two know each other?

**Edelgard** : my mother married his father for a while, so my mother is his step mother 

**Edelgard** : I live with my dad though, she’s...difficult

**mByleth** : complicated

**Hubert** : She’s a bitch

**Edelgard** : Hubert!!

**mByleth** : He's having a party at the end of next month away and I've been invited to it

**Edelgard** : Oh dear...

**Hubert** : that's going to be a disaster

**Edelgard** : I’m sure it will go fine !!

**Edelgard** : Anyway Minecraft, I wanted to ask if you were ok moving our usual play time slot to saturday instead of friday this week?

**mByleth** : suits me

**Edelgard** : Excellent !

**mByleth** : While you two are here….   
**mByleth** : Can i ask you for some advice?

**Edelgard** : Of course

**Hubert** : go on?

**mByleth** : i

**mByleth** : I think i have a crush on Linhardt

**Hubert** : why though?

**Edelgard** : Hubert !!!!

**Hubert** : I am dead serious, why do you like him?

**mByleth** : He's nice…

**Hubert** : I saw him once asleep under a pile of books in the library to avoid going to class.

**Edelgard** : It's amazing how much he would achieve if he actually applied himself, I can’t lie

**Edelgard** : I saw him walking around in circles outside the dorms one night at 2am

**mByleth** : …. 

**mByleth** : Sometimes he smiles at me and it makes me feel nice

**Edelgard** : Ok I understand that, Dorothea does that to me

**Edelgard** : The other night she made me cheesecake and I almost melted !!

**Hubert** : Disgusting

**mByleth** : How are you and Ferdinand doing Hubert ?

**Hubert** : Shut up

**Edelgard** : My best piece of advice would be to really be yourself and just hope that he makes a move first

**mByleth** : thanks…

**Hubert** : and if he turns you away, we can take care of him for you.

**mByleth** : i want him alive tho!!

**Hubert** : Fine -_-

Laying in bed, Byleth knew he had to prepare for his work tomorrow but he couldn’t bring himself to move. Asking Edelgard and Hubert for advice turned out to be pointless, but he was glad he tried anyway. At least now he had more friends who could share in his plight.

_ I hope the whole University doesn’t find out… _ at this rate he was worried they’d all find out before Linhardt did.

_ I should probably message him about the other night _ . Byleth wanted to apologise, for running away, he couldn’t bear losing him as a friend, not now. Despite everything, he still wanted more nights like that, to go out with him and listen to him babble about Pokémon.

_ Maybe I should play Pokémon…God I should just get this text out of the way. _

Writing out a simple text apology, he sent it, hoping he would be left on read.

**Byleth** : Hey Linhardt, I want to apologise about the other night. I think the loud noises got to me a bit too much and I felt super unwell. Also you seemed occupied before I left so I didn't want to interrupt you. Hope you have a nice time.

**Linhardt** : Minecraft!

Byleth nearly threw his phone across the room, shocked at the quick reply.

_ What do I do now?! _

He planned on texting him, getting left on read, and then trying to find some motivation to do his work for tomorrow, but that was out the window now, he had to confront him. Byleth took a deep breath…

_ I’m overreacting… _

He’d talked to Linhardt so many times, this wouldn’t be any different. He reached to pick up his phone, going back to their chat log.

_ I just have to pretend I’m not mad... _

**Linhardt** : I thought you left the other night because of sometime I said or did, so I’m glad to know that that's not the case. 

**Linhardt** : also that guy, god !! I am full of regret after that

**Byleth** : Did something happen between the two of you

**Linhardt** : Well we kissed, and he invited me back to his, too which i thought, fantastic, sex, before telling me he had to make sure his girlfriend was out of the house

**Linhardt** : so i pushed him off and was like nope i am not some pretty boy you can cheat on your girlfriend with

**Linhardt** : If i had went home with him i think i would have been caught in a domestic and I’d rather not be involved in a strangers failing relationship

**Byleth** : Sounds horrible :(

**Linhardt** : not as bad as this one man i tried to hook up with, went to his house and he didn't even have a bed !!! just a mattress on the floor 

**Linhardt** : I have standards, if i'm going to sleep with you i am not doing it on the floor 

Byleth’s eyes glazed over as he read Linhardt’s sex life woes, unsure of how to react.

_ I would look after him better,  _ he patted his mattress, checking it was soft. It was firm, the duvet was thin and he only had two pillows.

_ Oh no, this bed would be terrible for Linhardt! Wait stop stop…  _ he was over-thinking again, he needed to calm down.

**Byleth** : Yeah if your going to invite somebody over to fuck you might as well have a decent place to do it

**Linhardt** : I knew you would understand 

**Byleth** : You did ? 

**Linhardt** : we seem to be on the same wavelength

**Linhardt** : anyway the next time we hang out i'll bring you somewhere quieter 

**Byleth** : I actually know a place thats quite, but its kinda pricey and its not a gay bar

**Linhardt** : well I am up for it, i'll find some nice clothes for when we head out 

**Byleth** : I should ask?

**Byleth** : Did caspar get home alright?

**Linhardt** : Oh caspars fine, he's spent the whole night with Ashe and Annettee, two students from the cooking class

**Byleth** : Oh yeah he wanted to tell you that operation cat was ago 

**Linhardt** : ….I need to text him about that later 

**Byleth** : what is operation Cat?

**Linhardt** : Caspar and Ashe Together :/

**Linhardt** : its been going on for MONTHS

**Byleth** : damn

**Byleth** : oh btw do you know dimitri?

**Linhardt** : I know of him but that's it

**Byleth** : he invited me to a party at the end of next month and I was wondering if you wanna come with me?

Byleth nearly dropped his phone again, immediately regretting making such a forward offer.

_ No no, I’m coming off too strong _ , he thought as he looked to the chat log, expecting rejection.

**Linhardt** : I would love too ≖‿≖ 

**Linhardt** : anyway I must tell you about this new sea temple I found in minecraft, do you want to check it out with me later?

Byleth could only stare at his phone in shock,  _ I can’t...allow myself to get my hopes up… _

Despite that, he held his phone close to his chest and squealed.

He really liked Linhardt. 

  
**Byleth** : I’m in :) 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man I love byhardt so much, no doodle for this update but instead, I come bearing news  
> I have decided to host a byhardt zine! I'm currently doing interest checks for it and figuring out numbers but if this is something you are interested in the Twitter account is here  
> https://twitter.com/ByhardtZine  
> and the Form to fill out is here  
> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdlCYccP4DzzVNvkZhI_UG4w6Fd41y-BzBpEk4-40x7XuJdjQ/viewform
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'm exited to post the next chapter because its one of my favorites, so stay tuned <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byleth gets some one on one time with his crush, Linhardt, and starts to learn more about him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanted to wait to post this but I didn't want to go a month without uploading, sorry about the delay u_u, hope you enjoy the chapter.

"I was thinking that one could use the philosophy of Diogenes as a lens through which to view Athenian society at the time.”

"That's good,” Byleth muttered, focusing on reading her essay on her laptop screen, a two-thousand word analysis on the contradictions of Ancient Athens.

_ Impressive, she must be doing extra research. _

“This is excellent work Edelgard, Seteth will love this.”

Edelgard smiled, pulling her laptop back to its position in front of her. Byleth had been helping her in the library for a while now, reading through her work and research, glad his degree was finally coming in handy. They were not alone however, at the same table Dorothea wrote away making musical theory notes in concentrated silence, while Hubert sat in front of his laptop, furiously working away at something.  _ Hubert had mentioned he had work to do... _

Too curious for his own good, Byleth went to peak over Hubert’s shoulder and was shocked to see a massive, grey stone castle in Minecraft.

“I like your use of cracked stone.”

For a moment, Hubert looked like a deer caught in headlights, before realising the absurdity of feeling such guilt.

“I wish there was a darker stone I could use, to give it more of a...gothic flair,” Hubert replied quietly, “Would you like to see the stables I built or the torture chamber?”

Byleth tried to ignore the torture chamber comment, looking back to Hubert’s castle.  _ This is a genuinely impressive build, the block diversity and detail on display is intense. I wonder if he’s been watching tutorials? Wait, darker stone… _

“Why didn’t you use Blackstone?”

Hubert stared in silence at Byleth for what felt like an eternity, slowly blinking, his soul appearing to leave his eyes as he turned back to the laptop, beginning to fill the castle with TNT.

“I’m starting again.”

“Hubert!” Edelgard interrupted, exacerbated, “Please stop, you haven’t slept in days!”

She sat up to close Hubert’s laptop, Hubert not resisting, simply leaning back in his chair and grumbling. Dorothea could not hold back a giggle.

“Wow Hubie, I never took you as one for video games,” Dorothea smirked as she hopped over, reopening Hubert’s laptop screen to his further dismay, immediately commandeering the mouse and keyboard to look at Hubert’s creations.

“Ooh, you built a horse stable! I should tell Ferdie,” Dorothea reached for her purse to grab her phone.

“Please don’t tell him I’m building horse stables in Minecraft,” Hubert sounded at his wit's end, “I will never see the end of it.”

“Oh hush, Hubie,” Dorothea’s polished nails clicked on her phone screen as she typed, “He’ll think its cute~”

“Ugh.”

Edelgard closed the laptop again, glaring at Hubert, who sighed, putting the laptop away in his bag, and resting his head on the desk.

_ I suppose they know each other best,  _ Byleth thought, recalling that the pair grew up together.

“So, Minecraft,” Byleth wondered if Dorothea was addressing her or the game, but his answer quickly came as she looked to him, putting her phone down, “Edie told me you had your eye on a certain boy.”

_ Aaaah! _ Byleth felt the blood flush to his face, he wanted to chide Edelgard for telling Dorothea,  _ but I suppose it could be someone worse, she’s good to talk to about this stuff _ .

“Yeah, I have my eyes on someone, I guess,” Byleth tried and failed to sound casual. He heard Hubert chuckle from where he had rested his head and arms on the desk.

“Well, would you like some boy advice? Men are awfully tricky.”

“I’m a man Dorothea…”

“I know but...” Dorothea put a finger to her chin, “You seem to have your head on your shoulders, some men are well…” 

“Stupid,” Edelgard chimed in. 

“‘Oblivious’ would be a better word to describe it Edie, don't you think?” Dorothea chuckled.

“No Men are stupid.” Hubert responded. 

Dorothea pouted. In this moment of levity, Byleth was suddenly glad they had all met and gotten to know each other.

“My main point of advice Minecraft,” Dorothea said, gathering her papers together, “Is that you should go for it! You’re cute, too cute for anyone to turn you down!”

Packing her papers away, she could not resist turning to Edelgard with a grin, “But not as cute as my Edie of course,” leaning down to kiss her cheek.

Edelgard was beetroot red. “Please, not in public,” but even she couldn’t hide a smile creeping to her face. Hubert could only dramatically groan at the display of affection, though Byleth thought it was sweet.

“Well, anyway,” Dorothea continued, “I have my Theory class soon, so I’ll catch up with you later Edie, see you tonight~” she said playfully, walking away, before turning right back around again almost the second she turned a corner.

“Okay, on second thought, could you guys come look at this?”

Byleth, Edelgard, and Hubert stood up and walked over, at the back of the library, where a pile of Classical literature was scattered across the fallen body of one man, with green, long, messy hair, fast asleep.  _ Linhardt. _

“Doesn’t he have class right now?” Hubert asked as he quizzically gazed at the sleeping body before him.

“Should we wake him up?” Byleth asked the room.

Hubert groaned snarkily, “By all means Minecraft, your sleeping prince awaits.”

“Fuck off Hubert.”

“I’ll try waking him,” Dorothea squatted down, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him gently.

_ No response. _

“Damn, Lin’s out cold.”

“You’re too gentle with him, you’re not shaking him hard enough,” Edelgard said, bending down and grabbing Linhardt by the other shoulder, shaking him rapidly. Byleth wanted to tell her to stop, but he was starting to wake up.

“Five more...minutes…” Linhardt grumbled drowsily.

“Lin, wake up,” Dorothea shook him gently again, “You have an English lecture right now, and you’re asleep on the library floor, think of your back!”

“Dorothea, you know I don’t care,” Linhardt said, his eyes already closing again.

  
“Laying on the floor is a health hazard,” Byleth said meekly, a little reluctant to disturb Linhardt. 

“Oh,” Linhardt opened his eyes, looking up, “Good morning Minecraft, what a pleasant surprise to see you in the library. You know, I have a new and exciting theory regarding your name.”

“Hit me.”

“So, I’ve been thinking that maybe you aren’t related, but just look-a-like, and you call yourselves siblings for fun and for convenience,” Linhardt was really starting to perk up now, causing Hubert and Edelgard to stare at Byleth with a look that could only mean  _ Really? Him? _

"Wrong, we share a father." Byleth replied.

"Can I interview him?" 

“My my, asking to meet the parents Lin?” Dorothea teased, “I’ve never seen you so motivated.” Linhardt grabbed Dorothea by her outstretched arm, taking her help to get up off the floor. Linhardt brushed a little dusty off of himself, beginning to pick up the texts scattered across the floor. Byleth couldn’t help but notice he was wearing pajamas right now,  _ had he been up all night reading? _

“So, I’m guessing that you will not be attending your lecture?” Edelgard asked as she bent down to help pick the books off the ground. 

Linhardt scoffed, rolling his eyes, “Edelgard, must I remind you that you are not my mother?” he took a book out of her hand, “You know that I do not care for attending every class.”

Edelgard scowled a little, but decided not to say anything, she didn’t want an argument.

“Don’t be disrespectful to Edelgard,” Hubert said in his menacing timbre, glaring at the man. Linhardt barely reacted, going back to putting the books into their relevant positions on the shelves.

“Well I hope you’re okay, Lin,” Dorothea said, her words cutting through the tension, “I gotta get to class now, but text me if you need someone to talk to.” She ruffled Linhardt’s hair, Linhardt closed his eyes tightly and frowned. She then turned to give Edelgard a quick kiss on the cheek. “Catch you later babe!” Dorothea rushed off to her class.

Edelgard stood there, red of face, before Hubert put a hand on her shoulder, catching her off guard.

“Edelgard, we must be attending our...class, as well,” Hubert said, practically dragging Edelgard away as she yelped. 

_ They don’t have a class this hour _ , Byleth thought, before realising they had left him alone with Linhardt on purpose.

It has just occurred to Byleth, he had never talked to Linhardt one-on-one since he had realised he had feelings for him.

“So the Odyssey, Homer’s one, it’s a fun read isn’t it?” Byleth said sheepishly, reading the first title he saw of the books that had just been reshelved, “Are you reading a lot of uh...classical literature?”

“Couldn’t sleep last night,” Linhardt said, avoiding eye contact, kneeling down to sit on the floor again, staring at the book he currently held in his hands. Byleth recognized it,  _ Antigone _ .

Linhardt continued, “I thought if I read about the subject you studied, that I would understand you more.”

Byleth looked Linhardt over, he looked haggard, tired but also shaken. He stared at the book with dead eyes, a look unfamiliar.   
“Are you okay.”

Linhardt looked up for a second, before avoiding Byleth’s eyes again, looking at the carpet.

“I...don’t know,” he brought his knees close to his body as he sat on the floor.

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Linhardt looked up again, meeting Byleth’s eyes.

“I don’t think you would understand it honestly.” 

“I don't have to understand,” Byleth replied, “Sometimes just talking to somebody helps.” 

And then, Byleth sat down next to Linhardt on that library floor, crossing his legs.

Linhardt couldn’t help but smile momentarily, though his eyes moved back to the ground.

“I started to panic last night, thinking about my family,” Linhardt started, “Studying here, it’s meant to be...” Linhardt put his head down into his knees and started to tug at his hair slightly “It’s my last chance, from my family, before they officially ‘give up on me.’”

“Last chance?” Byleth asked.

Linhardt had been tugging anxiously on his hair, but stopped, putting his hands on the floor, rubbing them on the carpet as if to calm himself.

“My father runs a business, and he wanted me to take it over. It was his biggest wish, for me to keep it in the Hevring name, and then have kids myself and pass it onto them too. I’m an only child so I’m all they have,” Linhardt avoided eye contact as he spoke, “I guess I’m just a typical ungrateful rich kid.”

_ No way _ , Byleth was shocked, he never thought Linhardt gave off the vibes of a snobby heir. 

“I didn’t realise you came from a wealthy family.”

“Honestly, my father thought he hit the jackpot when I was born, he was so excited to have a son, then they realised I wasn't like other kids,” Linhardt laughed insincerely, as if just for himself. 

_ Not like other kids? _ Byleth raised an eyebrow, and Linhardt quickly caught onto his confusion.

“Oh, I’m autistic.”

“You are?”

“I was more surprised you didn’t figure that out sooner,” Linhardt did that insincere chuckle again, but stopped when he saw Byleth’s frown. He continued, “My dad told me once that saw this as a good thing, he said I’d become fixated with the company, make a fine businessman. I guess I’m glad he never saw it as damning...”

“And your mom?” 

A pregnant pause filled the library cubicle.

“I think she did.” Linhardt finally said. “She hated how I acted at events, how I never socialised, how I never got on with other kids. She really wants grandkids, she wants me to find a wife and a big family, she's even tried to set me up with girls before in the past.”

Linhardt breathed in as if all of this was flowing out of him at once and he needed air, before continuing.“At one point even tried to set me up with Caspar, before his transition of course.” 

Linhardt buried his head in his knees, hiding his face, “Gods, they don’t even know I’m gay. Well, I don’t know...I think my father sees it as a phase, thinks I'll eventually turn around, become a macho man, cut my hair short, and suddenly care about the business and his dreams but I just...I don't care.”

Linhardt’s voice was shaky, his hands gripping the carpet.

_ I’m no good at this _ , Byleth thought, trying to think of how to reply to his crush confiding in him like this.  _ What do they say at therapy... _

“And this upsets you?”

“I'm more upset by the fact that I don’t care about it,” Linhardt replied, his voice seeming calmer, but still dour and monotone. “I’m letting my family down, and heaven forbid, I’m sleeping around with men instead of looking for a wife. I’m a lost cause, sitting in my room most nights wide awake, knowing I can’t hide away from my future in University forever. I’ll have to return home, and get a wife, and have kids that I won’t care about, and I’m afraid I’d be a terrible father…”

“Is there no way to just...get away from it all?” Byleth suggests.

Linhardt looked up at Byleth, smiling again, as if to cope, “Get disowned I guess, but then I would have no income, or home, or qualifications because I keep dropping out of things.”

Byleth cautiously put a hand on Linhardt’s back, rubbing it in circles. He had trouble expressing it in words,  _ I could not imagine that amount of pressure... _

His own Dad had never expected much from By and himself, only wanting them to be safe, to be able to know each other. To imagine having to pick between a family that makes you unhappy and a life free of security…

Byleth finally spoke as he rubbed Linhardt’s back, “I don’t think you’re a lost cause, you’re one of the smartest people I know.”

He shifted closer to Linhardt as they sat on the floor of the library. Their shoulders were touching, and Byleth could feel his steady breathing, his hairs nearly stood on end. It felt selfish to even think such a thing, but he could not stop staring at Linhardt’s long eyelashes.

"Thanks...Byleth," Linhardt smiled, a real smile this time.

Byleth paused for a moment, this had been the first time Linhardt had called him by his name in a very long time, and he felt a blush creep onto his face. Linhardt laughed as he watched Byleth’s face go red, “Thanks Byleth, for listening to me.”

Getting himself together, Byleth replied, “It’s just very alien to me, my Dad just lets me and By live with him, no expectations.” Byleth remembered how he had reacted nonchalantly to discovering he had been dating a boy all those years ago.

“He never cared about our sexualities or our lifestyles...I guess he is terrified of losing us again.”

“Again?!” Linhardt suddenly perked up, and Byleth couldn’t help but smile at this. “That he means he lost you before! Oh heavens, I have to throw out half my theories now.”

Linhardt scrambled to his feet, brushing the dust off of himself, “Thank you Minecraft, not only do I feel better, but I feel like I am one step closer to uncovering the mystery behind your name!” He began to walk past Byleth.

“There’s more to me than my name, you know,” Byleth replied coyly, smiling. Linhardt turned around, smiling back. His eyes were bright, full of excitement once more as his smile reached them.

_ He’s beautiful… _

Byleth was left surrounded by the shelves of the library, butterflies dancing in his stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, I really like Linhardt.   
> Also yes I am heavily leaning into the autism side of things cause I am autistic and so is my editor(GF) so we love him.   
> Also, I'm writing Byleth as ND coded too cause you know, its nice.   
> sorry about the delay in updates uni/life, in general, is kinda kicking my ass rn but ill be on Christmas break soon so I wanna work on it more then.   
> No doodle cause life is kicking my ass, but i hope you enjoyed the chapter ^o^


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